Primal Chaos
by Greyman
Summary: Megatron tests his ability to change history by blowing up Jusendo. 65 Million years latter, a few changes have occured.... (Chapter 11 released and previous chapters spell checked (about time, no?)).)
1. Big Cat, Little Cat

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 1: Big Cat, Little Cat  
  
---begin part 1---  
  
It began, as usual, with the arrival of a postcard followed, soon  
after, by the arrival of a large man in white and his son in red.  
  
However, there were differences. The man had a head of black and  
white striped hair while the boy's hair was golden with black  
spots. Their clothes were also not the expected cotton gi and  
Chinese outfit, but fur-covered battle armor.  
  
Most notable, however, was the fact that although it was raining,  
both seemed to be human males. Although this would only be  
remarkable if you knew what should have happened if not for a  
little change in history some sixty five billion years earlier.   
  
It happened when the leader of a force of time travelling  
transformers compared a mountain to one recorded on a golden disk,  
then asked his assistant to blow up the mountain so he could watch  
as the disk's record of the future changed.  
  
Yet history is remarkably resilient and only a few remote villages  
in China were truly affected by the premature destruction of  
Jusendo. Indeed, even the remote Joketsuzoku villages were barely  
affected by the absence of Jusenkyo in their history. However, the  
people who would have settled on Jusendo and been mutated by it's  
strange waters, didn't and weren't, and the Musk Dynasty found a  
completely different way to acquire the powers of beasts.  
  
And instead of being lured to train in the now non-existent  
training grounds of Jusenkyo, Ranma and his father were transformed  
into beast warriors. Although, they did not, exactly, have  
permission to 'borrow' the Musk's ancient artefact.  
  
---  
  
After Soun enthusiastically greeted his old friend and introduced  
his future son-in-law to his three daughters to make a choice,  
his good mood was ruined by a refusal.  
  
"What do you mean, you won't marry one of my daughters?" Soun  
demanded. "What's wrong with them?"  
  
"Not 'won't'," Ranma asserted, "'can't'. And the fault lies in my  
construction, not theirs."  
  
"It is true," Genma agreed sadly in an ominous, 'so this is it,  
we're all going to die,' tone. "It is such a terrible tragedy!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Nabiki demanded, unwilling to let the  
hunk slip out of her fingers.  
  
"What's wrong with you?" Kasumi fussed over him with a concern that  
was somewhat more than motherly; she was starting to reconsider her  
stance on younger men.  
  
"Stop that you two," Akane glared at her sisters as the emphatic  
statement, that he couldn't marry her, er, one of them, had eased  
her fears for the moment. "He is our guest."  
  
"No," Soun insisted, "I demand to know why you can't marry my  
daughters!"  
  
"Where to begin," Genma mussed then stood up. "Prime! Perhaps if  
I just demonstrated."  
  
The girls pulled back as Genma flipped in the air. It was not the  
acrobatics that startled them, but the way his armoured body came  
apart at the seams and folded into another shape. At the end of  
the rapid transformation sequence, a white Bengal tiger landed on  
the floor and snarled at them.  
  
"Stop that, Old Man," Ranma protested and clubbed the tiger's head  
with a fist. "Frag it! You're scaring them!"  
  
"Did he really become that tiger," Akane asked to confirm what her  
eyes told her. "What's going on?"  
  
"So a were-tiger came to visit," Nabiki observed in near hysteria,  
"happens all the time."  
  
"Father, why are you friends with him?" Kasumi demanded, more than  
merely near to hysterics.  
  
"He wasn't that way before," Soun answered.  
  
"It happened two months ago," the tiger observed, "at the secret  
training ground of the Musk Dynasty."  
  
"Ah," Soun said with sudden understanding, "the legendary Beast  
Warriors. It seems that you learned the secrets of their art."  
  
"Yes," Genma nodded sadly. "However, I could never imagine the  
true horror of their secret."  
  
"True horror?" Ranma gasped at the understatement. "What were you  
thinking, doing this to me?" He jumped at the tiger and was soon  
embroiled in a fierce exchange of blows.  
  
"Foolish boy," the tiger retorted, "weren't you prepared to  
sacrifice your life for the sake of the Art?"  
  
"My life, yes," Ranma growled, "but not my humanity. Beast mode!"  
  
The Tendo family watched in horrid fascination as Ranma's body  
unfolded, twisted and refolded. He crouched on the floor then let  
out a snarl and returned to the battle. And while the tiger had  
been able to hold it's own against the boy, it seemed that the  
cheetah was another matter entirely.  
  
Out manoeuvred at every turn by the cheetah's superior speed and  
reflexes, Genma had no choice but to unleash an ultimate attack  
for which his body was perfectly suited.  
  
"I'm sorry! Forgive me! Please forgive me!" Genma supplicated  
until the cheetah gave up snarling and batting at him.  
  
"Ah, the 'Crouch of the Wild Tiger'," Soun said in fond recall and  
some relief. "Saotome, it is you!"  
  
Seeing that his feline son had found a place to curl up and nap,  
Genma maximised back to humanoid form, then nodded. "Indeed it is,  
Tendo."  
  
"So you can become a tiger and your son turns into a cheetah," Soun  
observed with sudden calm, "that's not so bad. Not bad at all.   
The boy can still marry one of my girls."  
  
"Daddy!" the girls protested.  
  
Genma shook his head forlornly. "It wouldn't be right, Tendo. The  
terrible secret of our transformations is that even these forms are  
no longer human."  
  
"What do you mean?" the girls gasped as one in fascinated horror.  
  
"Look at the way we transform," Ranma said and maximised as slowly  
as he could. Parts of him opened up and moved around; the forearms  
pulled away onto his back and human arms lifted clear of his chest  
cavity, the cheetah's head settled into his chest cavity while the  
human head rose from his torso. At the end, everything seemed to  
meld together seamlessly leaving what appeared to be an ordinary  
boy wearing an oddly decorated suit of metal, ceramic and fur  
armor.  
  
Nabiki reached out to poke his chestplate with sick fascination.   
"That's not just armor, is it?" It was hard as metal in places but  
warm as  
flesh.  
  
"Yes and no," Ranma sighed. "I am cybernetic; an amalgam of flesh  
and machine and there's no way to separate the two. The secret of  
the Musk was a device built using an ancient alien technology that  
combines human, animal and machinery into one being."  
  
"So you can't ...? I mean ...."  
  
"I can't take my armor off," Ranma clarified. "What you see is all  
of me. Will you please stop that."  
  
---  
  
Herb brooded on his throne as his most trusted aides, and boyhood  
friends, reported that whomever had stolen into the Chamber of  
Rebirth had escaped across the Sea of Japan. The problem was that  
while the Musk acknowledged no equal as warriors, and were excellent  
trackers, they had problems moving about in the modern world. For  
all that their bodies were the creation of alien science, they were  
just barbarians at heart.  
  
Take Herb for instance; a strong warrior with an astounding mastery  
of chi attacks even before being merged with the remains of a  
'dragon' to become even stronger as a beast warrior, but ask him  
what an electron was and he'd reply that the Musk weren't a  
democracy.  
  
Lime and Mint, merged with a Bengal tiger and a wolf, had an even  
less than excellent education. Which was a pity because they had an  
extensive knowledgebase at their fingertips if they only knew how  
to access the computers idling in the heart of the Musk Citadel.  
  
That ignorance didn't mean that they lacked a certain cunning.  
  
"We did find something of interest, though, Lord Herb," Mint  
replied, indicating their prisoner. "This one was following their  
trail, though badly. He seems to want revenge against one of the  
thieves."  
  
"He is rather strong for a mere human," Lime admitted, "but he  
wouldn't stand a chance against the beast warrior his foe has  
become. We thought that if he lead us to the thieves, we could  
destroy his enemy for him instead."  
  
"Yes, yes," Herb considered the restrained youth. "No. You will  
have a chance at revenge, boy, if you lead us to them. Take him to  
the transformation chamber!"  
  
---  
  
"I'm Akane," she offered cheerfully, having classified Ranma as  
being 'mostly harmless', "let's be friends, okay? You do Martial  
Arts, right? How about a little match?"  
  
Ranma smiled and warmed to her; anyone who still wanted to be  
friendly after discovering what a freak he'd become was alright.   
However, a match was another matter. Still, he didn't want to  
insult her. "Sure," he replied carefully, "just for fun, okay.   
I promise I won't hurt you."  
  
Akane tensed up. "Don't underestimate me, Ranma. I'm ...."  
  
"... only human," he interrupted mournfully. "I have an unfair  
advantage, ye know."  
  
Akane hesitated at that, but persisted. "Alright, let's see just  
how good you really are!"  
  
The answer was 'very'. He was too fast for her to hit and seemed  
to be able to anticipate her moves, then finishing the battle by  
knocking her over with a single tap.  
  
"That... that was amazing," Akane observed breathlessly from  
exertion. "I can't believe how strong and swift you are."  
  
"Yeah, well, I did train for ten years before becoming a cyborg,"  
Ranma replied. "It ain't all my mechanical advantage."  
  
"Well, I'm just glad I wasn't beaten by a boy," Akane replied  
thoughtlessly. "Oh, I didn't mean ...."  
  
"Whatever," Ranma ground through his teeth, his expression  
hardening.  
  
---  
  
A large rat reared up on its hind legs and yelled, "Ranma, this is  
all your fault!"  
  
"A rodent," Herb sighed as he saw what animal the chamber had fused  
his 'volunteer' with, "how terribly disappointing."  
  
---  
  
Akane stepped into the bathroom and stared at Ranma who sat in the  
furo polishing his armor with soap. She was acutely conscious of  
her nudity for several instants, then shrugged it off with a forced  
casual, "do you mind if I join you?"  
  
Ranma urked as he noticed the naked girl standing next to the tub.   
"Akane, what are you doing?"  
  
"It's okay, isn't it?" she asked with blushing innocence.  
  
"'Okay' isn't the word," Ranma replied in panic as he heard the girl  
climb into the water beside him.  
  
"Look, Ranma, I'm sorry for what I said earlier, but can't we still  
be friends? Here, let me ..., uh, does your back need scrubbing?"  
  
"Ah, yeah," he said and turned his back to her. "Hey, careful;  
that's still me, you know!"  
  
"You can feel this?" Akane asked as she kneed the fur lined metal  
objects on his back and leaned in to look over his shoulder. "I  
guess that makes sense. This becomes your front legs when you are  
a cheetah, right. What does that feel like now? I mean, can you  
feel another set of arms or what?"  
  
"Nah, it's just like it's just part of my back at the moment," he  
explained and tried to distract himself from the feel of her naked  
breasts against him there. "I guess my nerves, or whatever, are  
wired differently in this form."  
  
"What's it like to transform?" Akane asked with genuine curiosity.  
  
"It's hard to describe," Ranma said with a smile. "It feels  
weird and natural at the same time. It's exhilarating really. My  
beast mode feels so alive, like I could out-race the wind."  
  
---  
  
Kasumi was humming while preparing dinner. She paused and slide  
open the window into the main room. "Excuse me, Mister Saotome,  
but, ah, do you and Ranma need to eat?"  
  
"Yes, of course," Genma replied. "We are still partly flesh and  
even our mechanical parts seem to use food for fuel."  
  
He turned back to the shogi board and a momentary smile quirked  
the corners of his mouth. Some things never changed.  
  
Just then the house was rocked by a yell of, "you pervert!" from  
the bathroom. The yell broke the peace, Ranma's body broke the  
wall and the pond broke his fall.  
  
"It ain't my fault," he explained to the faces peering out of the  
house. "I dropped the soap and Akane reached for it and grabbed  
...."  
  
"That wasn't the soap!" Akane yelled from above and tossed a bucket  
at his head.  
  
"I thought you said that you weren't, ah, fully functional?" Nabiki  
observed as she peered discretely into the pond.  
  
"Jeez, how was I to know that it was retractable?" Ranma asked.   
"I just assumed it wasn't there. Ain't like these bodies came with  
a manual or nothing."  
  
"Don't look at me," Genma said. "It's not like I tried to test the  
equipment either."  
  
"So ... is it flesh or mechanical?"  
  
"Nabiki!" Kasumi chided with a blush.  
  
"Oh, like you weren't thinking the same thing?" her sister asked  
archly.  
  
"This is wonderful news!" Soun began to weep with joy. "The  
schools can be united after all!"  
  
"Omai!" Kasumi gasped.  
  
---  
  
"Once more, from the top. I'm Saotome Genma and this is my son  
...."  
  
"... Ranma. Ah, sorry about this."  
  
"These are my daughters: Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane. Choose the  
one you like, and she's your fiancee."  
  
"Oh, he wants ...."  
  
---  
  
"... me!" Kasumi exclaimed, then blushed at her own forwardness and  
explained, "I am the eldest, after all. It is my duty to ...."  
  
"You can't marry him just for duty," Nabiki interrupted. "I'll take  
him. After all, he isn't that bad looking for a machine man."  
  
Akane looked between her sisters in disbelief.  
  
"Well, Akane's already made her feelings know," Soun observed.   
"Though she shouldn't be so noisy when staking her claim ...."  
  
"What?" Akane gasped.  
  
"She shouldn't be doing it at all," Kasumi disapproved. "Girls  
shouldn't be so forward!"  
  
"Hey, I was just ...."  
  
"So it's really up to Ranma," Soun concluded and put him in the  
spotlight. "Well, Son, which one will it be?"  
  
"Uh.... well.... that is.... Beast Mode!"  
  
"Frag!" Genma swore and transformed to rush after his redshifting  
son. "Where do you think you're going, Little Cat? Come back and  
be a man!"  
  
---end part 1--- 


	2. The cat's out of the bag

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 2: The cat's out of the bag.  
  
"We're not getting married," Akane told Ranma as they (Ranma,  
Nabiki and herself) made their way to school. "Don't hang around  
us at school."  
  
"Like I'd marry a macho chick like you," the cheetah exclaimed from  
on top of the fence.  
  
"So it's just between Kasumi and me?" Nabiki asked and looked up at  
him smugly. "Anyway, why are you a cheetah now?"  
  
"Why not? It's good training and I need to get used to this form."  
  
"What do you think people will do if they see a cheetah running  
around town?" Akane demanded.  
  
"We could always get him a collar and say he's our pet," Nabiki  
suggested.  
  
"Don't even think about it," the cheetah sniffed and lashed his tail.  
  
"You'd better transform before we get to school," Akane warned,  
"people will think you're weird enough as it is."  
  
"Whatever," the cheetah snorted but hopped off of the fence,  
maximised then landed on his feet. He was promptly doused in  
water.  
  
Casting a glare at the oblivious old woman, he shook his furred  
armor dry and muttered under his breath. Ever since being  
reformatted he hated getting wet; even when in his cyborg mode but  
especially in beast mode. Wet fur stank.  
  
"Say, Akane, shouldn't you be getting ready to greet your  
admirers?" Nabiki asked as she sidled up to Ranma.  
  
"That's right," Akane growled as she wound herself up and started  
to charge forward. "I ... hate ... boys!"  
  
---  
  
"Does this happen often?" Ranma asked as he surveyed the carnage.  
  
"Every single morning," Nabiki explained. "Don't worry about  
Akane. She always finishes her fights before school. Hurry up and  
get into the school now or we'll be late!"  
  
"But ...," Ranma protested as Nabiki pulled him away.  
  
On the field of battle, a kendoist challenged Akane after she was  
exhausted by the morning horde but somehow, as always, she won.  
  
---  
  
Ranma found classes to be very relaxing. Whether it was his feline  
instincts or just his nature, Ranma enjoyed the opportunity to  
catnap; much to the annoyance of his teachers.  
  
Akane tried to ignore him despite the questions asked between (and  
sometimes during) class. She tried to ignore the questions as  
well. "Who is he?" "Why is he wearing body armor?" "Does he have  
a girlfriend?" "Why was Nabiki hanging onto him?" "Can I have his  
number?" "How does he put those spots in his hair?" and "What is  
the capital of Belgium?"  
  
In hindsight there were some questions she shouldn't have ignored.   
Especially when the teacher was doing the asking. Bucket duty was  
all that darn Ranma's fault anyway. Seethe, seethe, simmer and boil.  
  
Nabiki was fuming herself, but for a different reason. He wasn't  
in her class and, to make matters worse, he was in Akane's. Oh,  
sure her little sister professed to dislike boys but that oh-so  
hard-to-get act only seemed to make them fall for her even harder.  
  
Tatewaki Kuno was oblivious to the strangers existence. Actually  
he was pretty much just oblivious but, what else was news?  
  
Ryoga, with a little help from his new 'friends' managed to make  
it to school early; by several weeks ahead of schedule.  
  
---  
  
"Tell me, where is Saotome Ranma?"  
  
"Who?" the boy hanging from Ryoga's fist asked, took a look at the  
lost beast warrior's body, took notice of the black and golden armor  
and hazarded a guess. "Do you mean him?"  
  
Ryoga, with his hated enemy in sight at last, tossed the  
unfortunate boy over his shoulder and charged in for a sneak  
attack.  
  
Nabiki found herself lifted into Ranma's arms and carried away as  
a crater appeared where they had been standing.  
  
"Still good at running away, eh, Ranma?" Ryoga asked as he stood  
over the crater with his armoured fist still planted in the ground.  
  
"Ranma, do you know this guy?" Nabiki asked as Ranma set her down.  
  
"No... he's not one of the Musk, but it's obvious that he's been  
reformatted. Wait he's ..." Ranma placed two fingers on his  
forehead and concentrated. Then clicked his fingers and revelled,  
"nope! No idea."  
  
"Don't pretend you don't know me, Ranma," Ryoga growled. "I'll  
never forgive you for running out on our duel of honour."  
  
"Hey, I never back down from a challenge," Ranma protested. "The  
only fight I missed was ... Wait, you're Hibiki Ryoga, aren't  
you. Man, I waited three days for you to show up."  
  
"And when I got there on the forth day, you had already run off to  
China."  
  
"Say, the fight was only five hundred yards from your house. How  
come it took you four days to get there?"  
  
Furiously Ryoga shrieked, "did you think I was out for a stroll? I  
went through hell to find where you moved that vacant lot!"  
  
"Excuse me," Nabiki asked in disbelief, "but if your sense of  
direction is that bad, how did you track Ranma through China?"  
  
Things went downhill from there.  
  
---  
  
By an unspoken agreement they fought as martial artists. Their  
cyborg modes didn't, after all, come equipped with weapons but  
Ryoga retained his favourites: his bandannas and even his belt. As  
such the fight went along the lines you would expect, except that  
Nabiki wasn't a trained martial artist like Akane. Where a martial  
artist might have sensed danger fast enough to avoid more than a  
bad hair cut, Nabiki received a seriously bad hair cut.  
  
The energon charged bandanna sliced through her neck!  
  
Ranma released a primal roar and automatically transformed into  
beast mode. Ryoga took one look at him and panicked; racing off  
screaming, "c-c-c-at!!"  
  
Ranma ignored him. Had his anger turned to revenge, the golden  
rocket would have easily outpaced the lost cyborg. Instead  
something else was processing deep inside Ranma's core. Nabiki  
was dying before his nose and he had no way to save her ... except  
that need provided the way.  
  
"Ranimus Primal, Maximise!"  
  
Energon sparked off his finish as he was transformed. His chest  
plate swung away to reveal his spark burning fiercely deep within  
the core of his shell. Operating on pure instinct his sensors  
swept the area. He needed an animal. He needed ... there.   
Somehow it seemed appropriate.  
  
The light of his soul shone forth and Nabiki was reforged.  
  
---  
  
The brown housecat hissed and arched her back at the intruder.  
  
"Don't you puff your fur up at me, Nabiki," Genma chided with a wag  
of his finger as he walked into the dojo. "I know it's difficult,  
but once you adjust you'll be fine. Ranma went through the same  
thing at first." Under his breath he added, 'though he had a good  
excuse.'  
  
"Careful, Big Cat," Ranma warned. "She seems a little protective  
of me."  
  
"So I see," Genma deadpanned as he tried to shake the oversized  
housecat off of his arm. "Bad Nabiki! Bad! You mustn't bite  
people, Kitten."  
  
Ranma pulled Nabiki off of his father. She hesitated before  
letting go, but then set to rubbing up against him and licking his  
cheek.  
  
"So what the heck happened?" Ranma tried to ignore the overly  
affectionate bundle of fur. "That wasn't the way we were  
reformatted, so I don't think the Musk do it that way."  
  
"I have no idea, Son, but maybe they do do it that way, and the  
chamber we used was just a backup? However, you know what this  
means, don't you? Now you will have to marry the girl!"  
  
"How the heck do you figure that?" Ranma demanded.  
  
"Well, now you're made for each other," Genma explained the obvious  
point.  
  
Ranma decided that it was time to do some sparing with his father.  
  
---  
  
Ryoga wandered through the woods lost in misery. He'd been so  
caught up in trying to destroy, Ranma for all the misery and  
humiliation he'd been put through, that he'd attacked blind to  
the innocents that would be caught up in the battle. Then he'd  
killed a girl. He deserved it if a c-c-c-cat caught his rat form  
and ate him.  
  
A cat just like the one playing with Ranma over there. It would  
serve him right if ....  
  
Wait, what was Ranma doing in the mountains? Where did the house  
come from? And who was that hitting him with the broom?  
  
Like all good housewives, Kasumi hated rats, but she wasn't the  
type to jump on a table and scream for help. She was the type to  
keep her cool and bash the vermin into roadkill. It was one of the  
few things to which she put her early childhood martial arts  
training to good use.  
  
(Broomstick bo style was a very popular technique with the women of  
Nerima ever since her mother had introduced it. Not so popular  
with the menfolk, but then they were usually on the receiving end.)  
  
However, even as a cybernetic rat, Ryoga was still a martial  
artist of great constitution. The blows to the head were hardly  
felt but still somewhat annoying.  
  
"Oh, spam!" Kasumi exclaimed as Ryoga maximised before her.  
  
Ryoga opened his mouth to explain himself when a cry of "Die You  
Bastard!" caught his attention. He spun around to find an angry  
girl attacking him with a budda statue; then a set of training  
weights and whatever else came to hand.  
  
Akane worked off her frustration. She couldn't blame Ranma for  
saving her sisters life, even if she could blame him for the side  
effects, but she could take it out on the boy who endangered it.  
  
---  
  
"Back away from them, Ryoga," Ranimus Primal ordered from the  
doorway. "This is just prime. First you nearly kill Nabiki, now  
you sneak in here to attack these girls. Your fight is supposed  
to be with me, Ryoga. It seems that Nabiki was right and you have  
no honour!"  
  
"Wait, no," Ryoga protested, "that's not the way it is. This isn't  
what it looks like. They attacked me! Would you cut that out you  
violent tomboy!!"  
  
"You snuck up on my sister," Akane growled, furious that her best  
attacks had so little effect on the intruder. "Who knows what you  
were going to do to her!? Die Ryoga!" Ineffective clobbering  
continued unabated.  
  
Nabiki arched her back and hissed at Ryoga from Ranma's shoulder  
then launched herself at the lost rat-boy.  
  
"Nabiki, no!" Ranma yelled and reached for her but too late to stop  
her from pouncing onto her prey. "Not again!"  
  
"C-c-c-cat!" Ryoga screamed as the reformatted girl landed on his  
face and he started running in circles yelling, "get it off! Get  
it off!"  
  
Ranma perspired. Was that what he looked like while suffering from  
cat-fist syndrome before being reformatted? That cure was one  
thing he could have thanked his father for, if it had been  
intentional. Well, even though he could sympathise, he didn't  
think Ryoga deserved it. With a cry of "Beast Mode!" he  
transformed and leapt at Ryoga.  
  
Paws kicked at Ryoga's chest while his mouth clasped gently around  
the scruff of Nabiki's neck and pulled her off. With a mighty  
thrust of his hind legs, he sprang away to deposit Nabiki in  
Kasumi's arms then launched himself back at Ryoga.  
  
Effective clobbering proceeded from there. Until Ranma lost Ryoga at  
a turn, that is.  
  
---  
  
Nabiki licked herself clean, studied herself intently in the  
mirror and frowned. After the attack on Ryoga her mind had snapped  
back to herself, but she was still locked in 'beast mode' as Ranma  
called it. She was a fairly nice cat, but while it was a good mode  
to visit, she wouldn't want to stay in it.  
  
"Frag it," she muttered as she realised she just licked herself  
clean. With her luck she'd get furballs gumming her gears or  
something. Stupid cat reflex actions. "Now how do I transform?"  
  
Hearing Ranma return she padded out to the dojo to find him arguing  
with Akane.  
  
"Come on, Ranma," Akane wheedled, "please! I know you can do it.   
What if that monster comes back while you're not here to protect  
us?"  
  
"Forget it, Akane! I don't know how I reformatted Nabiki, and even  
if I did, we still don't know if she'll recover from the shock."  
  
"I'm just prime now, Ranma," Nabiki said as she padded up to him  
and rubbed against his leg. She froze and shook herself. "I think  
you'd better teach me how to transform though."  
  
Ranma scratched his blonde hair. "I never had any problem with  
_that_. I just concentrate and let the warrior within come forth."  
  
"I'm not a martial artist," Nabiki reminded him sourly.  
  
"So? It's not that hard. Try it."  
  
Nabiki frowned. She wasn't a warrior, but maybe she could call  
forth her inner Ice Queen .... Now what did Ranma say when he  
transformed? It was something like, "Nabiki, maximise!"  
  
Ranma and Akane watched as the oversized housecat reformed into a  
mechanised Nabiki. The cybernetic girl preened and examined  
herself. He humanoid form was similar in design to Ranma's but  
curvier. "Now this," she remarked with a pleased grin as she  
fingered her helmet-cut of now bronzed hair and ran a hand over her  
sleek furred armor, "this I like just prime!"  
  
---  
  
Kuno Tatewaki believed a great martial artist. Indeed he believed  
himself to be a samurai of the old code of honour. As such he also  
believed himself to be a romantic hero in the eyes of his true  
love.  
  
(Once he believed himself to be a sugar plum fairy, but that's a  
different story. Besides, he'd learned not to drink his sister's  
tea since then. Though some would say he learned too late to avoid  
permanent brain damage.)  
  
A martial artist', no a samurai's, duty was to destroy monsters  
and protect the innocent - especially when the innocent were  
beautiful maidens - double especially when they were his one true  
love!  
  
"Foul monster," he decried as he ordered a silver coated katana  
from ebay. "Your days of terrorising the Tendo home are numbered.   
I shall destroy you before you turn more innocent girls into cats!"  
  
He paused then as calling Nabiki innocent stretched the bounds of  
even his elastic personal view of reality. Then he snapped back to  
his rant. "Never fear, Akane, for I shall surely free your family  
from that were-creature's tyranny, then you will at last leap into  
my arms ...." Then they would do a bit of that, and some of this,  
and lots of those!  
  
It seemed that he had put two and two together and came up with four  
point one; which was unusually accurate for him but still missed  
the mark.  
  
---end part 2--- 


	3. Blue Thunder versus Golden Rocket

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 3: the Blue Thunder versus the Golden Rocket.  
  
---begin part 3---  
  
"Behold your nemesis, unholy beast! I am the undefeated champion  
of Furinikan High, rising star of the Junior Kendo Club League, Kuno  
Tatewaki aged seventeen also known as the Blue Thunder of Furinikan  
High! Your evil schemes will henceforth end on my silver blade. I  
shall free the Tendo family from your spell!"  
  
"What in the matrix is he talking about?" Ranma demanded as he  
pointed to the kendoist ranting in the school gates. "And who the  
heck is he, anyway?"  
  
"Kuno is the best fighter in the school," Akane introduced, "and the  
biggest pervert."  
  
"I think he's challenging you to a duel," Nabiki smirked as she  
buffed her armor and leaned against him in a way that screamed,  
'mine,' to one and all (except for Ranma who wouldn't get it unless  
someone pointed it out with visual aids). "Sounds like he thinks  
that you're some kind of were-cat."  
  
"Just prime," Ranma muttered. Still, a challenge was something he  
knew how to deal with. "Alright, I'm Saotome Ranma, heir to the  
Saotome School of Flawless in All, ah, TransForms Martial Arts. I  
accept your challenge!"  
  
"Flawless in all _TransForms_?" Akane asked her sister.  
  
"Why not?" Nabiki replied. "Sounds about right to me."  
  
---  
  
"Kuno Tatewaki didn't have much, did he?" Ranma remarked to  
Akane a short time later as they approached their class.  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Akane responded. "He is still the best  
_human_ fighter in school. I beat him ever morning though, for  
some reason," she added thoughtfully.  
  
Ranma fumed at that. "Feh, I could have taken him before I was  
reformatted."  
  
"I don't know about that, Ranma; you and that monster aren't  
ordinary boys, you know. You're stronger, faster, and better than  
before."  
  
"Not by that much," he protested.  
  
---  
  
"Ah, so that vile monster has fled before my prowess," Tatewaki  
observed from his resting place on the ground. "No doubt he is  
cowering in fear and licking his wounds. Does he think he can  
escape me so easily?"  
  
"Actually, Kuno, you lost," a voice drifted down from above.  
  
"That is impossible!" he stated flatly and crossed his arms. "With  
my mighty prowess and blessed silver blade, there is no way that  
creature could have defeated me."  
  
"I'll tell you this only once, Kuno, so listen closely. Ranma  
isn't a were-creature."  
  
"Wait, that annoying voice is familiar. Tendo Nabiki!?" Tatewaki  
demanded as he turned to the - girl? "What has become of you?   
What did that monster do to you?"  
  
"He saved my life, Kuno. I don't think that my sister appreciates  
you trying to kill him for that."  
  
"Nay. I see it now. You are merely ensorcelled by your villainous  
master. Forecerts it is obvious now that you have ever been in the  
service of evil."  
  
"I was going to help you, Kuno Baby, but, for that remark, you can  
make your own way inside."  
  
"Pah! Kuno Tatewaki does not need your help. I will but lie here  
and rest a while."  
  
"Suit yourself," Nabiki shrugged and made her way inside before the  
rain started.  
  
---  
  
"So you want to destroy that foul Saotome," another voice drifted  
up from below as Tatewaki stood vigil over the school yard.  
  
"Who are you?" Tatewaki demanded of the stranger squatting before  
him.  
  
"Gosunguki Hikaru," the Gothic boy introduced. "You won't remember  
me. Nobody does. But I can help you destroy that monster. All  
you need to know is his weakness. I know the weakness of all  
supernatural beings. With my help you can take him by surprise!"  
  
"You fool. What do you take me for? Do you think I would resort  
to attacking his weakness in secret?"  
  
"Well, I'm sorry to have bothered you then."  
  
"Wait. I said nothing about attacking his weakness openly! Well,  
then ...."  
  
"Then what?"  
  
"What is his secret, dolt!?"  
  
---  
  
"Have at thee, monster!" Tatewaki cried as he drew his old wooden  
katana and attacked. Ranma pulled back from him with tears in his  
eyes. "Ah, Ha!" Tatewaki yelled in triumph. "Now I have thee,  
werecat! You cannot attack thanks to my herbal ward!"  
  
"Garlic is for vampires, you moron!" Ranma pointed out.  
  
"Then why do you back away from me?"  
  
"Nobody can get close to you; because you have bad breath!" Ranma  
accused. "You're not supposed to eat them, you fool."  
  
"Never the less, I will drive my wooden blade through your heart."  
  
"That's vampires again," Ranma replied. "And how are you going to  
do that if you drive me away?"  
  
"Curses, foiled again!"  
  
---  
  
"Salt is for zombies!"  
  
---  
  
"Fire is for Frankenstein's monster!"  
  
---  
  
"Crucifies are for vampires, again."  
  
---  
  
"I have no idea what slapping the face with a fish is for. But I'm  
not gonna let you get away with it."  
  
---  
  
"I have a new plan," Hikaru confided to Tatewaki after he burned  
the Big Book of Movie Monsters. "I have been secretly photographing  
Ranma to find his true weakness."  
  
"Secretly!?" Tatewaki exclaimed after glancing through a sample.   
"He's posing in every shot, you moron!"  
  
"No matter, I have another idea."  
  
---  
  
"What's Kuno up to now?" Akane asked as the trio walked through  
the gates.  
  
"Looks like he's chasing some boy in a dress around the yard,"  
Nabiki replied drolly. "I wonder who it is?"  
  
"And why are they covered in ...."  
  
"I don't want to know," Ranma said firmly. "At least he's not  
bugging me today."  
  
---  
  
Later, Akane asked Nabiki suspiciously, "where are you two off to?"  
  
"We have to save Nabiki from an evil kidnapper," Ranma confided  
and held out the note. "See."  
  
"'I have Nabiki. If you wish to save her, meet me on top of  
Kuno's head in the gym.'" Akane read. "Signed, 'An Evil  
Kidnapper.'"  
  
"Don't worry, Nabiki," Ranma vowed. "I will save you."  
  
"Would you cut that out!" Nabiki groused.  
  
"Soatome, you fiend. What are you doing?"  
  
"Just what the note says, Kuno," Ranma replied. "See!"  
  
"Get off of my head, you monster!"  
  
"Eeek! Help! Save me, Ranma!"  
  
"Nabiki, what are you doing up there?"  
  
"That isn't funny, Ranma."  
  
"Oh, Ranma, please, you have to go save my sister!"  
  
"Et Tu, Akane?"  
  
---  
  
"I can't believe those morons," Ranma shook his head as they  
walked away from the gym. "Imagine setting up a pit of dogs for  
us to fall into." He shuddered.  
  
"It does kind of make sense," Akane observed, "you do turn into a  
big CAT after all. Besides, you did freak out for a moment there.   
What was that about?"  
  
"I had a bad experience with a dark pit when I was young, okay,"  
Ranma said with a firm 'I don't want to talk about it' tone.  
  
"What I can't figure out is how they got those wolves out of the  
zoo?" Nabiki shrugged as she clung to Ranma.  
  
---  
  
The golden rocket streaked across the rooftops of Nerima. Saotome  
Ranma, martial artist, cyborg and cheetah, was probably the fastest  
thing on four legs.  
  
He maximised in mid-leap, transferring the bag from his beast mode's  
mouth to his cyborg mode's hand in a fluid motion as he did, and  
landed in the Tendo yard without a jar.  
  
"Here's the eggs you wanted, Kasumi!" he called as he entered the  
house.  
  
"Oh, why thank you, Ranma Dear," Kasumi beamed sweetly at her  
possible fiance. "My, that certainly was fast and you didn't even  
break one."  
  
"Maybe you should get a job as a courier, Ranma Honey," Nabiki  
purred as she rubbed up against her mentor and possible future  
fiance's legs. "You could call yourself the Golden Rocket  
Express."  
  
"Getting used to your beast mode, Nabiki?" Ranma asked as he  
reached down to scratch between her ears.  
  
"Hmmm," Nabiki purred. "It has its uses, Ranma."  
  
Akane, the reluctant (yeah right) possible fiancee, fumed at she  
watched the pervert flirting with her sisters, but knew that if she  
wanted to be reformatted like Nabiki, and gain his edge in the Art,  
she needed to get on his good side. "Ranma, there's a letter for  
you," she forced herself to be pleasant. Strangely, it didn't feel  
that hard to do.  
  
Ranma sighed as he scanned the message. "It's from Kuno. He's  
challenging me to a rematch."  
  
"Again?" Akane asked. "Can't he admit that he just can't beat  
you, Ranma?"  
  
"Oh well," Kasumi sighed. "At least you have to admire his  
persistence."  
  
"Actually I'm starting to find it rather annoying," Ranma  
bemoaned. "I wish he'd just give up."  
  
"Kuno doesn't like to loose," Nabiki observed as her cat form  
looked over Ranma's shoulder fixtures. "At least he has given up  
on that monster-hunter routine. This looks like a proper martial  
arts challenge."  
  
"I don't know," Akane doubted with suspicion. "He wants Ranma to  
go alone. It's probably another lame trap."  
  
"Whatever," Ranma sighed. "It is a formal challenge so I can't  
just ignore it. Besides, those idiotic plots aren't any threat."  
  
Nabiki narrowed her eyes. "Don't get over confident, Ranma. Just  
to be sure, I think I'll keep an eye on you. My cat form can keep  
out of sight."  
  
---  
  
"So, Saotome, you dared to face me in honest combat after all?" the  
cloaked figure addressed him.  
  
"As opposed to all those tricks you tried, Kuno?" Ranma asked  
from the other side of the sports field. "Sure. Why not?"  
  
"Kuno Tatewaki does not resort to 'tricks'," he replied. "No  
matter, now we shall settle this once and for all. I shall free  
the Tendo girls from your presence!"  
  
"'Once and for all', huh?" Ranma smirked. "That means that if you  
lose you forget about them, right?"  
  
"It means that I finally have the power to destroy you!" Tatewaki  
discarded the cloak with a flourish and drew his sword. Ranma  
noticed two things right away. Firstly, the sword was not a wooden  
bokken but a metal blade of a very strange design. Secondly,  
Tatewaki's body was covered in a brazen armour of a rather familiar  
design.  
  
"You've been reformatted as well," Ranma observed with a serious  
expression on his face. "First Ryoga, now you. What's going on  
here?"  
  
Tatewaki snarled. "All that matters is that, as a Beast Warrior  
too, I shall finally vanquish you!"  
  
"You think so," Ranma smirked as he adopted a battle stance.   
"Well, maybe you'll be a decent challenge at least. So, let's see  
what you've got. Bring ... it ... on!"  
  
---  
  
Nabiki's claws sank into the branch as she watched Tatewaki swing  
his strangely spinning blade at Ranma. Becoming a cyborg had made  
her stronger and faster, but not really a decent martial artist.   
Raw power, as Ranma had explained, was not a substitute for skill  
and experience. However, Tatewaki had been considered a champion  
kendoist before being reformatted. Would his former skill and new  
power and weapon be a match for Ranma?  
  
The answer seemed to be, 'yes'.  
  
---  
  
"Hey, you're pretty good," Ranma smirked after Tatewaki unleashed  
a buffeting of windtunnel intensity. "Your new speed and strength  
really improves those air pressure attacks. They pack quite a  
wallop now, don't they? And that energised sword of yours really  
makes that quick strike technique dangerous. You could probably  
even penetrate my armor now. That is, if you could hit me."  
  
"Why can't I hit you?" Tatewaki demanded in fury.  
  
"Well," Ranma lectured while continuing to dodge Tatewaki's  
best efforts, "for one thing, your reflexes are way off."  
  
"What?" Tatewaki demanded and stared; forgetting even to continue  
his barrage of attacks in his shocked startlement.  
  
"You haven't trained in that form, have you?" Ranma explained  
casually. "You're just not used to your new power. You're bigger,  
faster and stronger, but that just makes you misjudge your reach  
and mistime your strikes."  
  
"Curse you," Tatewaki growled. "I will destroy you yet!"  
  
"Yeah, right," Ranma smirked insolently. "There's no way you can  
beat me like that."  
  
Tatewaki snarled but backed off. He was furious at himself for  
being so eager to confront Ranma. He should have realised that he  
needed to train himself. "Very well. I will train in the  
mountains until I have mastered my new body. Then I will return  
and crush you!"  
  
"No way," Ranma denied. "What ever happened to 'this will settle  
it once and for all'? You started this, but now that you're  
losing, you suddenly want to change the rules? I don't think so.   
It ends here and now, Kuno."  
  
Tatewaki clenched a clawed fist, then a viscous grin appeared on  
his face. "You haven't won yet, Saotome," he realised. "I may not  
be able to hit you, but you haven't landed a blow either. It's a  
stalemate."  
  
"You reckon so, do you?" Ranma smirked.  
  
"Yes, I do," Tatewaki grinned. "We are too evenly matched in these  
modes. So why don't we see how we compare in our other forms?"  
  
"Interesting," Ranma observed. "You know that I become a cheetah  
and yet you seem pretty confident. I'm betting that you haven't  
practiced fighting in your beast mode either, yet you must realise  
that I have. Still think you can handle me, Kuno?"  
  
"What's the matter, Saotome, afraid?"  
  
"Not, really," Ranma said. "I just don't think you'll be a decent  
challenge, that's all. Prime then, let's do it!"  
  
"Beast Mode!" they roared as one.  
  
---  
  
Nabiki's fur stood on end as she watched Tatewaki's transformation.   
She didn't know how it was possible, but she knew what he'd become.  
  
"Ranma, watch out! That's a velociraptor!"  
  
---  
  
"Say, nice transform," the cheetah observed casually. "Sleek,  
powerful, well armed and fast too, I bet. But what the heck are  
you?"  
  
"Ignorant fool!" the 'raptor snarled. "Behold the instrument of  
your demise: for I am a running dragon!"  
  
"And you called me a monster," the cheetah smirked. "Okay lizard  
lips, talking big doesn't mean anything if you can't match your  
words. Show me what you've got."  
  
---  
  
The battle was amazingly one sided.  
  
Cheetahs hunt by chasing down their prey with short bursts of  
speed. Velociraptors, swift runners as well, were also built for  
leaping and tearing their prey with their claws and fanged mouths.   
In close combat a velociraptor would probably have the advantage of  
tooth and claw over an ordinary cheetah.  
  
However, Ranma was also a martial artist and had learned to use his  
style to overcome the limitations of a cheetah's movements. Kuno  
was the same, but his style of Art was based on the use of a weapon  
and he hadn't trained in his beast form at all.  
  
Ranma didn't even resort to using his teeth and claws to win the  
fight. Instead he boxed the 'raptor with his paws as he dashed  
passed, leaped over or ducked under. Occasionally a charge passed  
was turned into a head butt at the last moment. Once he grabbed  
the 'raptor's tail, somersaulted and flipped Tatewaki into the  
ground. Another time he spun passed the 'raptor and used his tail  
to knock it's legs from under it. Through it all, the 'raptor just  
wasn't able to touch him.  
  
"Give up, Kuno," the cheetah told the battered 'raptor. "You can't  
win fighting on animal instinct alone."  
  
Dazed and woozy from the jackhammer pawswipes, Tatewaki struggled  
to remain on his feet. It snarled, "I, Kuno Tatewaki, will never  
admit defeat to the likes of you, Saotome! A hundred, nah, a  
thousand, kicks from a fiend like you is like nothing at aw...lll."  
  
The punch-drunk 'raptor collapsed.  
  
---  
  
An armoured fist clubbed the white tiger awake.  
  
"Yo! Big Cat, ye got some 'splainin' to do," Ranma growled.   
"Like, how the heck did Kuno get reformatted?"  
  
"What the heck are you talking about, Little Cat?" the tiger  
demanded with a snarl at having his catnap interrupted.  
  
"You know, the annoying kendoist who's been bugging me," Ranma  
snarled. "I figure you have to be the one who reformatted him.   
What were you thinking, turning a moron like him into a Beast  
Warrior? Don't ye realise how dangerous he is with that kind  
of power?"  
  
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the tiger insisted.   
"As far as I know, the only way to reformat someone is using those  
coffins in the Musk Citadel. I've no idea how you managed to do it  
without one."  
  
"Yeah, right," Ranma sneered. "Tell me, how else could Kuno be  
reformatted here in Japan?"  
  
"Actually, Ranma," Nabiki stated as she leaned against a wall, "I  
believe your father. Remember, Kuno was on a crusade against the  
'vile were-cat Saotome'. I really don't think he'd accept help  
from another one of you."  
  
Ranma frowned. "Then how did it happen?"  
  
"It has to be the Musk," the tiger decided. "They are the only ones  
who could do it."  
  
"But why?" Ranma demanded.  
  
"Simple," Nabiki observed. "Revenge. You and your father stole  
their secret after all."  
  
"That's crazy," Ranma insisted. "Why would they reformat Kuno for  
that? Why not just come after me themselves?"  
  
"It's not just Kuno," Nabiki replied. "There was also that Ryoga  
character. Who knows why? Maybe whoever found you isn't strong  
enough on his own? Or maybe they're just testing you?"  
  
"Maybe you're the reason why," the tiger considered.  
  
"Me?" Nabiki exclaimed.  
  
"Well, the way Ranma reformatted you at least," the tiger  
clarified. "It may have made the Musk Warriors cautious about  
revealing themselves after that boy led them to us." The tiger  
maximised. "Prepare yourself, Boy," Genma stated as he adopted a  
fighting stance. "You can't afford to slack off on your training  
now!"  
  
---  
  
"What?" Akane gasped, reflecting the shocked disbelief felt by the  
rest of the family gathered around the table. "Kuno's a Beast  
Warrior now?"  
  
"That's right, Sis," Nabiki replied. "Someone seems to be  
reformatting Ranma's enemies and sending them against him. We  
figure the Musk have to be involved."  
  
"Ranma," Akane wailed, "you _have_ to make me a Beast Warrior now!"  
  
"I agree, Son," Soun replied almost as eagerly. "If the Musk are  
involved, you will need all the help you can get."  
  
"Forget that!" Akane stated. "If Kuno is a Beast Warrior, there's  
no way I can beat him tomorrow."  
  
Ranma scowled. "Kuno's the least of your problems. If the Musk  
have tracked us all the way to Japan, they're not going to let  
anyone keep their power after they dealt with us. They'll be after  
anyone I manage to reformat too."  
  
Nabiki nodded. She had been the one to point that out to him.   
"That means that I'm a target, now," she stated and that set her  
father off. When he subsided a little she managed to add, "they'll  
probably be after Akane and Kasumi as well, if they think it will  
give them a hold on Ranma." Which ended the conversation as Soun  
flooded the room with wails.  
  
---  
  
"I don't know how to reformat you," Ranma told Akane for the  
umpteenth time. Some of the firmness in his tone had been worn  
down by the repetition. "It just happened with Nabiki."  
  
"Don't give me that, Ranma," she scowled at him. "I'm sure you can  
remember what you did if you try hard enough."  
  
"Frag it. All I remember is watching Nabiki's spark fade before my  
eyes," Ranma stated, "and feeling absolute despair at the fact that  
I couldn't do anything to repair her. Then It Just ... Happened!   
The power just surged through my circuits. I don't know how to  
make it happen at will, so unless you want to try sepukku to see if  
it'll work again ...?"  
  
"I don't recommend it," Nabiki commented as she padded into the  
dojo on four paws. "Stop pestering my fiancee, Akane. We need to  
spend some quality time together, if you know what I mean?"  
  
Ranma urked as Akane prepared to make like a volcano. "I asked you  
out here to train, Nabiki. Not to, ah, ...."  
  
"I know what you meant, Ranma Honey," the cat smirked. "Honestly,  
Akane, anyone would think you were jealous."  
  
"Why would I be jealous of that ...," Akane began then sniffed and  
glared at her feline sister. "Anyway, I need to train too."  
  
"That's a good idea," Ranma nodded. "Why don't the two of you  
spar? Let's see what you've got."  
  
"But she's a Beast Warrior!" "But I'm not a martial artist!" the  
sisters protested.  
  
"Exactly," Ranma said. "Nabiki may be cybernetic, but she doesn't  
have your skill, Akane."  
  
---end part 3---  



	4. If you go into the woods today....

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 4: If you go into the woods today...  
  
---begin part 4---  
  
Kuno Tatewaki sat in deep contemplation over his lo... temporary  
setback in his attempt to free the Tendo girls from Saotome's  
clutches. He brooded in the classic 'thinker' pose while staring  
into the rotating blade held in his claw.  
  
His meditation was interrupted when a rather large tarantula,  
crawled across the ceiling of the sitting room, dropped down,  
flipped over and unfolded into what could barely be called a Beast  
Warrior, who landed face first through the coffee table.  
  
"So, Gosunguki," Tatewaki observed as he lowered his shiny new toy,  
"you have returned at last from your mission. Do you have the  
photographs I requested?"  
  
"Unfortunately, no, Kuno Sempai," Hikaru replied sourly. "The  
Tendo home is empty. After searching the house from top to bottom  
I finally found a sign of their where abouts." He did not mention  
that the sign had been posted on the front gate. "It seems that  
they are training in the mountains."  
  
"Curse that fiend Saotome! How dare he seek to separate me from  
my love? I see it now. He has spirited her away to a hidden love  
nest where even now he is plotting to do unspeakable acts."  
  
"With her entire family?" Hikaru asked wide eyed (though that  
seemed to be his only expression).  
  
"Maybe, not," Kuno reconsidered. "Yet how she must pine at being  
separated from my noble presence. Come my loyal lackey. To the  
mountains!"  
  
---  
  
Genma faced off against Soun. He stood poised for a moment, then  
charged in and punched. Soun held his ground and manfully took the  
blow.  
  
Actually, with all the weight of his samurai style armor and  
weapons, he couldn't move; at least not under his own power.   
Genma's punch had moved him fairly well.  
  
"Tendo, old friend," Genma sighed as the clash of steel died down,  
"that armor isn't going to do you any good against the Musk."  
  
"That's pathetic, Daddy," Nabiki observed between bites of her  
apple, "really pitiful."  
  
Soun just lay where he'd fallen and moaned. He didn't have much  
choice.  
  
---  
  
Akane was furious. Once again she couldn't even touch her opponent  
and felt his mocking know-it-all smirk like a SledgeHammer blow to  
her pride. "Damn it Ranma. How can I learn if you won't take me  
seriously?"  
  
"How can I take you seriously if you can't even hit me?" Ranma  
countered. "Do you think that the Musk will just stand still and  
let you clobber them? You're pretty strong, but you need to pick  
your speed up."  
  
"I'd be fast enough if you'd just make me into a Beast Warrior,"  
Akane growled. "Then I'd show you."  
  
"Like Nabiki showed you?" Ranma responded while weaving through  
her punches. "There ain't no shortcuts, Akane. Cybernetic  
enhancement isn't a substitute for training."  
  
"Stop making excuses, Ranma," Akane challenged. "You're just  
afraid that I'd whip your butt as a Beast Warrior."  
  
"Yeah, right. Just like Kuno did. I wish I could reformat you,  
just to show you how wrong you are."  
  
"Ah, Ranma," Genma sighed as he walked into the clearing. "Are  
you ready for some serious training, Little Cat?"  
  
"Anytime you're ready, Big Cat," Ranma grinned while jumping over  
a leg sweep.  
  
"What about me?" Akane growled. "We're supposed to be training  
now!"  
  
"You need ta spar some more with Nabiki," Ranma observed. "Come on  
Big Cat. Beast Mode!"  
  
"Ranma, come back here and let me ...!" Akane yelled as the two  
cats vanished into the woods. She clenched her fists by her side  
and stormed off. "Oh! He makes me so mad! .... Nabiki!"  
  
---  
  
"Ah, delicious."  
  
Kasumi stirred the simmering pot, watched the bubbling pan and  
chirped cheerfully to herself. It was good to be back out in the  
woods. The family hadn't been on a camping trip for too long.   
Now, if only she could get Ranma to take her on a nice romantic  
walk.  
  
Kasumi hummed merrily as she continued to tend to her simmering  
plot and bubbling plan.  
  
---  
  
Cheetahs were sprinters of the grassy plains while tigers were  
stalkers of the forests. In these mountains, Genma should have  
held the advantage with the trees slowing Ranma down. However,  
normal cheetah's did not use trees as springboards to bounce  
around like crazed pinballs.  
  
Of course, normal tigers did not use martial arts, either, so  
the advantage was not entirely held by Ranma. Genma was able  
to avoid some of the speed driven strikes and even land a few  
blows of his own and his own leaping ability was nothing to  
sneeze at. But on a Dan scale of one to ten, Genma scored an  
fifteen while Ranma was holding place at twenty.  
  
Nabiki rated herself as a nought point five. At best. Her cat  
form was not in the running, and she was content to stay back and  
watch from a not-too-nearby-branch. It wasn't quite as exciting  
as watching Ranma spar in his cyborg mode, but there was a certain  
thrill at seeing those big cats battle.  
  
"Not bad, Little Cat," the tiger observed as he sprang away from  
Ranma's latest spring-driven charge and falling into an untigerish  
two legged stance. "You're not just leaping from tree to tree to  
change direction, you're using them to increase your speed. Well,  
that's enough of a warm up, don't you think?"  
  
"Okay, Big Cat," the cheetah smirked. "Let's get serious."  
  
Nabiki stared in shock as they began to _really_ move. "That was  
only their warm up?"  
  
Suddenly the world shook as the cheetah ricocheted off of the  
trunk of her tree, followed a moment later by the tiger as it  
tumbled through the trees. The cat lost her grip on the branch  
and plummeted towards the ground.  
  
Feline reflexes clashed with her panicked human reaction as the  
hard ground surged up at her, but she was plucked out of the  
air at the last moment and deposited relatively gently on softer  
soil.  
  
The tiger promptly tackled the distracted cheetah and the fur  
flew. Nabiki decided to beat a hasty retreat to safer ground.  
  
"Nabiki, get your tail over here!" Akane yelled at her as the  
campsite came into view. "It's time for your training!"  
  
The cat whimpered. She'd forgotten that there'd been something she  
was avoiding.  
  
---  
  
The forest rang with the sound of a wooden spoon on a metal pan.   
It was Kasumi' signal to call everyone back to the awaiting meal.   
Nabiki was heartily glad as she and Akane made their way back. Any  
thoughts that having an armoured form would protect her had been  
drummed out of her by Akane's fists.  
  
Oh, the armor did blunt the impact somewhat, but she felt every  
blow. Also, having enhanced strength and speed didn't let her hit  
her sister in turn, not when Akane seemed to anticipate her  
strikes and move to block or dodge.  
  
Nabiki just wasn't a fighter and couldn't see any point to further  
training. If she couldn't beat her sister, what hope would she  
have against the Musk? Her strengths lay in other areas.  
  
But Ranma insisted that sparing together would be good for the  
two of them, and somehow she found herself talked into it.   
Unfortunately, Akane took her training seriously and seemed to take  
her frustration and resentment out on Nabiki.  
  
As compensation, he was paying attention to her. Their fathers had  
decided, in a flash of something resembling a bright idea, that  
having Ranma train them would help him grow closer to making a  
decision. The downside was that he was paying attention to Akane  
as well.  
  
Suddenly the two girls came to a halt. The campsite was empty  
..., no. On second glance, Soun and Kasumi could be found hanging  
from a branch tied up like a pair of Egyptian mummies.  
  
"What's going on?" Nabiki demanded in panic as something dropped  
onto her shoulder and stabbed at her neck. Her vision began to  
blur but the last thing she remembered was seeing Akane throw a  
giant black spider off of herself. Then blackness claimed Nabiki.  
  
---  
  
"Oh! Ho! Ho! Ho!" the spider laughed as it unfolded into a  
tall girl in black spider motif armor. "You avoided my bite, Tendo  
Akane! You are as good as they say. No matter. I, Kuno Kodachi,  
the Black Widow of Saint Bacchus, shall ..."  
  
"You killed Nabiki!" Akane erupted as she tore the spider off of  
Nabiki. "You B!7(c)#!"  
  
"Stop that!" the tarantula protested in a terrified voice as Akane  
started beating Kodachi over the head with him. "Oh," he muttered  
deliriously, "she used me as a weapon!"  
  
"You vicious harridan!" Kodachi spat oil as she knocked the spider  
out of Akane's grasp. "You will pay for that!"  
  
Akane leapt cautiously out of Kodachi's reach. Kodachi also leapt  
back but swept her arm upwards and a silken cord flicked out into  
the air from her wrist. With a vindictive grin on her face,  
Kodachi proceeded to lash it towards Akane like a whip when a golden  
form rocketed into the campsite and maximised between the girls.  
  
"What's going on here?" Ranma demanded as he glanced about. He  
stood in a classic fighting stance with one hand raised and holding  
firmly onto the cord.  
  
"You caught my line?" Kodachi observed in amazement and growing  
admiration. "You must be Saotome Ranma. Oh hohohoho! My brother  
did not say you would be so prime."  
  
"They killed Nabiki," Akane wailed. "Again!"  
  
"She's alive," Kodachi defended quickly, seeing Ranma's gaze  
harden. "Merely paralysed like the others. I simply wanted to  
keep them from interfering."  
  
"Interfering with what?"  
  
"Why, with our love affair, of course, Darling Ranma," Kodachi  
declared wildly and threw herself into his arms.  
  
"What!?" Akane exclaimed in fury as she watched the sl...girl rub  
herself against Ranma's chassis. "Ranma, you slime!"  
  
"What's going on here?" the white tiger asked as it bounded into  
the clearing.  
  
"I'm not sure," Akane growled, "but it looks like Ranma's old  
girlfriend has come to take him back!"  
  
"Hey, I ain't never seen this crazy chick before!" Ranma protested  
as he tried to prise the clingy spider-girl from his torso.  
  
"It looks like she's pretty familiar with you to me!" Akane  
glowered and clenched her fists in fury.  
  
"Oh hohohohoho! I shall return to consummate our love later, my  
Darling Ranma!" Kodachi shrieked into the back of her hand as she  
sprang away from him and leaped into the tree tops.  
  
---  
  
"I'm telling you, I never met her before," Ranma repeated while  
they checked the envenomed Tendos.  
  
"She certainly seemed to know you," Akane accused as she dragged  
her father to the tent. "Wait ... she mentioned something ...."   
She thought on the encounter some more.  
  
"... about her brother sending her," Ranma mussed as he started to  
cut Kasumi free of webbing.  
  
"She said her name was Kuno Kodachi," Akane recalled suddenly.  
  
"She's Kuno's sister?" Ranma gaped at Akane as he pulled the last  
of the webbing away from Kasumi.  
  
"Come to think of it," Akane mussed, "they do kind of look alike."  
  
"Well, that would explain how she became a beurk!" Ranma exclaimed  
as he looked back down at Kasumi. The webbing had stuck to her  
clothes and he'd torn ... both ... away.  
  
"Ranma, you pervert!" Akane exploded and grabbed a convenient  
rock. "How dare you strip Kasumi!"  
  
"It was an accident," Ranma protested while trying to hold his nose  
and defend his head at the same time.  
  
"How can you accidentally take a girl's clothes off?" Akane  
demanded.  
  
'You'd be surprised,' Ranma, for once wisely, did not comment  
aloud.  
  
"Ah, young love," Soun muttered deliriously and drifted back to  
unconsciousness.  
  
"Oh Ranma," Kasumi mumbled. "We shouldn't .... Not in the kitchen  
.... Oh no, not with the ... Oh! Oh, yes .... Harder! Faster!"  
  
Akane paused her pounding to stare at her sleep talking sister,  
then she listened to her advice and resumed clobbering harder and  
faster than ever. "You pervert! What have you been doing to my  
sister!?"  
  
"I ain't done nothing to her!" Ranma protested between thuds. "I  
don't know what she's talking 'bout, ya crazy tomboy!"  
  
'The sad thing,' Genma reflected from near by, 'is that he probably  
doesn't. I've _got_ to have a _talk_ to my son soon.' He paused  
to listen some more. Nabiki was starting to come to and muttering  
to herself as well. A goofy grin crossed his face. 'Nope. Sounds  
like I should just let nature take it's course.'  
  
"Are all girls crazy?" Ranma asked the heavens as Akane chased him  
out of the tent.  
  
---  
  
"Yes. MeOw! What was that for, ya crazy goddess?"  
  
---  
  
Tatewaki stood motionless in the clearing then stepped off of a  
piece of rope, which promptly snaked away at great speed. Suddenly  
several hours worth of setting up came at him in the form of over a  
dozen sharpened logs swinging on the end of ropes. Tatewaki  
maintained his pose until the last moment when he turned, drew his  
sword arm back and was promptly hit in the face by a bouquet of  
roses.  
  
With his timing thrown off, Tatewaki was promptly pummelled by his  
own training contraption.  
  
"Brother Dearest, I have returned," Kodachi announced as she leaped  
from the canopy and pirouetted.  
  
"doh I dohdised...," Tatewaki mumbled as he picked himself out from  
under the new log pile. Recovering his poise, somewhat, he  
requested, "have you perchance located the lair of that fiend  
Saotome, my twisted sister?"  
  
"Indeed I have," Kodachi replied and went misty eyed at the thought  
of 'her Darling Ranma'. A delightful romantic daydream began to  
unfold; one involving herself, Ranma, satin sheets and a bull whip.  
  
"And what, pray tell, became of Gosunguki?" Tatewaki demanded as  
he looked around for the somewhat more reliable of the spiders.  
  
"Who? Oh, yes. I, ah, left him to keep an eye on them," Kodachi  
answered as she blinked back to tenuous reality. "In case they  
should seek to flee in the night, yes?"  
  
"Why should they ...?" Tatewaki wondered. "You did keep out of  
sight, didn't you? You did stick to my plan, did you not, my  
demented sibling?"  
  
"Exactly as you instructed," Kodachi laughed nervously. "However,  
they may have caught a glimpse of us. Ranma seems to be quite the  
warrior, Brother Dearest."  
  
"Indeed he is somewhat skilled," Tatewaki admitted. "Yet he will  
be no match for me once I have mastered my new abilities." He  
raised his sword to the heavens and vowed, "Soon my training will  
be complete, then I shall banish him!"  
  
"He's training too, you know," Kodachi observed in a thoughtful  
tone then laughed into the back of her hand. "Perhaps I should  
watch his training. Just so you will not be caught by surprise, of  
course."  
  
"Nay. Even though you are my sister," Tatewaki proclaimed, "I  
cannot allow your devious interference in this battle."  
  
---  
  
"Let me get this straight," Nabiki said coldly. "My fiancee saves  
our hides from some nutso spider woman and you _beat him over the  
head with a rock_!?"  
  
"That pervert was ogling Kasumi's body," Akane explained. "He was  
getting a real eyeful too!"  
  
"Oh good!" Kasumi exclaimed softly then blushed with embarrassment  
as two sets of eyes stared at her in astonishment. "Er, I mean, he  
seems to be coming around."  
  
"Spam, did you get the number of that Pred that hit me?" Ranma  
asked groggily as he sat up.  
  
"It was a violent tomboy," Nabiki explained.  
  
"Nabiki, say that one more time and I ...! Oh." Akane paused and  
started fidget. "That is ... I'm sorry Ranma. Heh, I guess I over  
reacted ... a bit." Her fingers suddenly became very interesting  
to her. She started to investigate how they could twist together.   
"Sorry 'bout that."  
  
"Er .... That's okay, Akane," Ranma said at a loss for words.   
Nobody had ever apologised for hitting him before. Ever.  
  
"Get up, Little Cat," Genma ordered, suddenly appearing out of  
nowhere, grabbed Ranma by the front of his chest plate and hurled  
him across the campsite and into a tree trunk. "This is no time  
for lounging around!"  
  
"That's going too far, Mr. Saotome!" Kasumi exploded into Genma's  
face.  
  
"Yeah," Nabiki agreed angrily beside her, "even for martial arts  
training!"  
  
Akane went straight for the rock treatment.  
  
"Now, _that_ was deserved," Kasumi decided firmly, then hurried  
over to _her_ fiancee. "Ranma Dear, are you alright?"  
  
"'m just prime, 'sumi," he muttered as he peeled himself off of the  
tree and flipped upright with a push of his hands.  
  
---end part 4--- 


	5. A Bad Hair (Care) Day

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 5: A Bad Hair (Care) Day  
  
---begin part 5---  
  
"Saotome Ranma! Prepare to die!"  
  
Ranma dodged as a figure, dressed in white robes, sailed passed and  
attacked the tent with a pair of short swords that appeared from  
within his long sleeves.  
  
"Who the heck are you?" Ranma demanded.  
  
"Silence!" the stranger threatened a shrub. "For stealing my  
Shampoo, you will die at the hands of Mousse!"  
  
"That's got to be the second weirdest death threat I've ever  
heard," Ranma commented aside to the girls. "And I thought Ryoga's  
bread feud was stupid."  
  
"That rat was chasing you over bread?" Nabiki asked in furious  
bewilderment. "That was why he nearly killed me!?"  
  
"I remember now. It was back at my last school," Ranma explained.   
"Lunchtimes were always a fierce battle to see who would get  
served. It was a boys' school after all."  
  
"Oh, that makes lots of sense," Nabiki deadpanned.  
  
"I used to wait until they were serving the last piece before  
joining in," Ranma ignored her to continue. "It was more of a  
challenge that way. I guess Ryoga felt the same, but I always  
managed to beat him to it. I would never have guessed he'd take  
it so badly. It was only curry bread. Oh, then there was the  
rice bread, the egg salad, and the eel sandwich, and the ...."  
  
"Oh boy," Kasumi sighed as she raised a hand to her cheek. "That  
sounds like a lot of straws on one camel's back."  
  
"So what's this guy after you for?" Akane demanded of Ranma.   
"Ruining his hairdo?"  
  
"Stop ignoring me, Saotome!" the nameless boy whirled and yelled at  
Kasumi. "And leave Haru Du out of this!"  
  
"Oh dear." Kasumi nervously backed away from the wildly flailing  
swords.   
  
"Yo! I'm over here, foureyes!" Ranma snarled at the swordsman in  
white and jumped forward to slap the guy's glasses over his eyes.   
"Leave K... the girls out of this."  
  
"So, Saotome, you finally tire of hiding from me," the boy accused  
as he peered through thick lenses. "At last you realise the  
futility of running from my wrath!"  
  
"I didn't even know you were chasing me," Ranma replied. "Who are  
you, anyway?"  
  
"As if you don't know, Saotome," the boy growled, then paused  
thoughtfully and snapped his fingers. "That's right, we've never  
actually met."  
  
"Then why in the matrix are you after me?" Ranma demanded hotly  
and clubbed the boy on his noggin.  
  
"For running out on my Shampoo!" the boy declared.  
  
"I get it now," Ranma exclaimed. "You're a total loony!"  
  
Mindless violence followed.  
  
~~~ flash  
  
Shan Pu crawled through the grass and smiled at her rare find. A  
white tiger skin rug would look so good on the floor of her hut.  
  
Shan Pu froze as the tiger looked suddenly alert, as though  
something had alarmed it. She frowned in puzzlement as she didn't  
think that she'd made a sound and was approaching against the wind,  
but the tiger was searching in her direction.  
  
Then Shan Pu heard a sound behind her and rolled over in fright at  
finding that another cat had stole up on her. The cat regarded  
her with curious golden eyes and, sensing no hostility from it,  
Shan Pu felt her fea... surprised reaction die down.  
  
Joketsu pride surged; how dare that oversized kitten interfere in  
her hunt? Not pausing to notice that that type of cat just didn't  
belong in the mountains, Shan Pu turned her spear on the beast and  
stabbed.  
  
All she got for her effort was the humiliating loss of half of her  
weapon to a casual paw swipe. A power snap of her leg was likewise  
avoided with a relaxed bound. Shan Pu used the opportunity to flip  
herself onto her feet, draw her knife and slash at the cat.  
  
The knife landed out of reach further down the slope, joining the  
far half of her broken spear. Shan Pu rubbed her wrist and  
regarded the creature with cautious awe. It was increasingly  
obvious that that was no natural beast. She was at least glad that  
her actions didn't seem to have enraged it, and got an idea.  
  
Shan Pu smiled and bowed respectfully. "Great cat spirit. I,  
Shan Pu of the Joketsuzoku, would be honoured to test my skill in  
combat with you." Her teacher had drummed into her the importance  
of being polite; often and with a big stick. It couldn't hurt.  
  
The creature seemed to understand her words, or at least her body  
language, for it replied in a strange language, but with a human  
sounding voice, and adopted a relaxed battle ready stance. Shan Pu  
bowed again then attacked with all the skill of three thousand  
years of Joketsuzoku lore taught to her.  
  
She found herself flat on her back moments later wondering what had  
happened. She looked up at the cat face staring down at her and  
forced a cheerful smile. "Great cat spirit is a great warrior. I,  
Shan Pu, am honoured to have met you in combat. At least I, Shan  
Pu, wasn't defeated by a man, eh?"  
  
It was meant to be a joke, but a moment later the cat licked her  
face. Shan Pu froze in shock; was that a Kiss of Marriage? Did  
that count? Wasn't she supposed to give it? What did the Big Book  
of Joketsu Law say about being defeated by an spirit animal anyway?  
  
Shan Pu did the only thing she could. She fainted.  
  
~~~ back  
  
"You kissed her?" Akane demanded angrily. 'How dare he kiss  
ano...?' she thought but instead said, "how dare you force yourself  
on a girl?"  
  
She could see it all: he beat the poor girl up then, while she was  
helpless, he did that ... and this ... then his hands went down  
there ... and up here ... a bit to the left .... 'Why is it so hot  
all of a sudden?' "Arrrgghh! You pervert!"  
  
"Hey," Ranma protested as he backed away from the glowing girl, "I  
was in my beast mode, I didn't speak the language and I wanted to  
assure her I was friendly. I didn't ...."  
  
"What's this about a Kiss of Marriage?" Kasumi interrupted with a  
demand on the boy tied up in his own chains.  
  
"When a warrior woman is defeated by an outsider male, she must  
give him a Kiss of Marriage and make him her husband," the boy  
growled and glared at Ranma (or that was assumed to be his intended  
target).  
  
"WHAT!?" three female voices demanded in perfect harmony.  
  
"It is the law of the Joketsuzoku," the boy explained. "But I will  
kill him and win back my love!"  
  
"Get real," Ranma said with a smirk. "You can't defeat me with  
your stupid tricks."  
  
"Stupid tricks?" Mu Tzu growled. "Who do you think you are talking  
to? I, Mu Tzu, am a Master of Hidden Weapons Techniques!" With  
that he stood up, letting the chains fall from him and revealing a  
bolt cutter held in his left hand. "Now, prepare to face my  
mooffle."  
  
Akane removed the training potty from Mu Tzu's face. "You can  
kill him later. Now, tell us what happened to the girl."  
  
~~~ flash  
  
Shan Pu awoke to hear two men moving around nearby and reached for  
her weapons for reassurance. She was relieved to find herself fully  
clothed and armed, though her hunting spear had been broken.  
  
That was when she recalled her encounter with the spirit beast and  
it's 'proposal'. Shan Pu had always wanted a simple life: beat up  
people until she found a man strong enough to beat her up instead,  
then marry him and beat up other people together. Being wed to a  
spirit animal wasn't something she had expected at all. She didn't  
even want to think of the wedding night! It had to be a mistake  
and as soon as she explained it to .... Where was it anyway?  
  
'No, where am I, Shan Pu?' she considered the more immediate  
question first. She peered around and saw one of the men, in a  
strange costume of metal and black and white striped fur, tending  
to a camp fire. The other, a boy in a similar costume with gold  
and black spotted fur, was butchering a hare.  
  
She clenched her teeth at the thought of men hunting on Joketsuzoku  
land and fondly imagined ways to punish the outsiders when she took  
a second look at their armor and noticed the design on their  
chests and the patterns of the fur. Just like on her ....  
  
"Die!!"  
  
~~~ back  
  
".... So you see," Ranma explained, "we tried to shake her off  
our trail, but she chased us to the ends of China trying to kill  
me. I guess it kind of makes sense now; she mustn't have figured  
out that we were the same. We just thought she was nuts. But that  
doesn't explain why Hair Gel here wants to kill me."  
  
"She must have figured it out at some stage," Nabiki observed.  
  
"Oh damn," Kasumi groaned. "Now she doesn't want to kill you, she  
just wants you."  
  
"And for that, you must die!" Mu Tzu declared, pulled a morning  
star out of nowhere and swung it wildly; sending the girls diving  
for cover.  
  
"Hey, watch it with that thing," Ranma snarled as he kicked Mu Tzu  
in the stomach and away from the group. "If you want to fight,  
then fight me!"  
  
"Indeed I shall, Saotome. Now Die!"  
  
"Put your glasses on, idiot," Ranma moaned into his hand after  
watching Mu Tzu demolish another shrub. "You'll need all the help  
you can get to fight me with your stupid party tricks."  
  
"You've mocked my techniques for the last time, Saotome!" Mu Tzu  
avowed and produced a chicken. "Now face the true horror of Hidden  
Weapons! Blow of the Chicken Egg!"  
  
"You jerk!" Ranma yelled as he dived between Mu Tzu and the girls  
to let the egg bombs explode against his shell. "Let's see how  
you fight without your tricks. Beast Mode!"  
  
The cheetah launched itself through a barrage of chain weapons and  
slashed at Mu Tzu with rapid paw swipes as he circled around. They  
didn't look to hit, but material and metal fell away from Mu Tzu in  
swathes.  
  
"Oh my!" Nabiki gasped as the robes fluttered to the ground. She  
pulled a spy camera out of her 'belt' and snapped off a few  
shots.  
  
"Oh yeah, baby, take 'em off!" Kasumi cheered as Mu Tzu's body was  
revealed, then squeaked in embarrassment. "Oh dear, did I say that  
out loud?"  
  
"Honestly, you two," Akane muttered, unable to see what all the  
fuss was about. Just because Mu Tzu had a rippling abdomen, well  
defined pectoral muscles, bulging biceps and flexing triceps, not  
to mention that tightly packed gluteus maximus under those tight  
pants ... it was nothing to get all hot and bothered about.  
  
Ranma maximised and faced off against the youth who was stripped  
down to his pants.  
  
"Who do you think you are dealing with?" Mousse demanded as he  
reached behind his ear to pull out a fishing hook and line. "I'm a  
Master of Hidden Weapons. Let's see how you fight without your  
armor."  
  
"You idiot," Ranma growled as the line hooked onto him. "My armor  
is part of my body!" He seemed more angry at that than at Mu Tzu.  
  
"I will tear it off of you anyway!" Mu Tzu declared and kicked at  
Ranma, raising sparks as the toe of his shoe, or rather the needle  
sticking out of it, scraped against the armoured hide. "Why don't  
you fight me as a man?"  
  
Ranma growled and stared at his fist. "Heh, you think I need this  
to beat you? Without your tricks even Akane could beat you." He  
pushed the named girl forward.  
  
"What do you mean, 'even Akane'?" she demanded with a punch to his  
head.  
  
"Hey! Fight him, idiot!" Ranma growled. "Go ahead, you can take  
him."  
  
"So, Saotome, now you hide behind a weak little girl?" Mu Tzu  
sneered.  
  
"Who ... are ... you ... calling ... WEAK!?" Akane demanded as she  
emphasised her words with blows; the final uppercut sending Mu Tzu  
flying out of the campsite.  
  
"Well, Saotome, it looks like we can sleep soundly tonight," Soun  
said as he and the tiger strode into the camp. "It doesn't seem  
like there's anyone around for miles."  
  
"Uh, did we miss something?" the tiger asked as everyone stared at  
them incredulously.  
  
"Tell me again why we came out here, Ranma?" Nabiki asked Ranma.  
  
"So we could train without anyone finding us," Ranma replied  
weakly.  
  
"And the reason our father's went on patrol was ...?"  
  
"So nobody could sneak up on us."  
  
"And the girl following them into camp would be ...?"  
  
"Shampoo," Ranma confirmed with a sigh.  
  
"Shan Pu being so so happy is finding husband!" the girl sighed  
ecstatically as she flung herself at him then gripped him  
possessively.  
  
---  
  
"Shan Pu!" Mu Tzu weeped joyously as he embraced her  
enthusiastically. "Forget Saotome and run away with meeek!"   
Something definitely felt wrong, he decided and jumped away  
in alarm.  
  
"Do I look like Shampoo?"  
  
Mu Tzu slipped his glasses back on and backed away to demand,  
"what ... who are you?"  
  
"Gosunguki Hikaru," the Gothic boy in black armor introduced. "I  
can help you against that foul Saotome."  
  
"Why should you help me?" Mu Tzu demanded suspiciously.  
  
'I want to help you win back your love with no thought of reward.   
That's just the kind of guy I am,' Hikaru thought and said, "Ha!   
With Ranma gone I can have Akane for myself!"  
  
Then he thought some more, 'wait, I should have said the first out  
loud and kept silent on the second.'  
  
---  
  
"Listen, Shampoo, I'm not going to marry you," Ranma said firmly.   
"Getting married because of some barbaric law is pure prehistoric.   
So you see ... you're not listening, are you?"  
  
Touching his cheek tenderly Shan Pu said, "I love you!" before  
kissing him firmly on the mouth and stunning him into immobility  
by using her tongue.  
  
"Nope. I don't think she's listening," Nabiki observed with a  
frown.  
  
"Nice technique though," Kasumi added thoughtfully then blushed.  
  
Akane muttered darkly to herself.  
  
"So ... you see ...," Ranma continued after breaking free. "I  
think ... I mean, well .... First we should get to know each other  
better."  
  
"Ranma!" Soun exploded. "What is the meaning of this?"  
  
"Now don't blame my Ranma," Kasumi soothed. "It's a clear case of  
a woman trying to trap a man."  
  
"Looks like it's working, too," Nabiki added enviously.  
  
"I don't think it's right," Kasumi disapproved sternly.  
  
"Yeah," Nabiki added. "If anybody's gonna trap Ranma, it's me."  
  
Perhaps it was something in the girls' tone that caught Shan Pu's  
attention, but it was Nabiki's armoured from that held it. "Oh!"  
she asked, "Is Ranma sister, yes?"  
  
"He's my fiancee," Nabiki corrected as she attached herself to  
Ranma's arm.  
  
"Oh no, Nabiki," Kasumi gasped in dismay, "you shouldn't say that.   
He hasn't chosen me, er, which one of us he's going to marry yet."  
  
"Not girl husband!" Shan Pu asserted furiously as she clung  
possessively to Ranma's other arm. "Ranma is destined be Shan Pu  
groom."  
  
"Not if you ask me I'm not," Ranma stated as he regrew his spine.  
  
"Ranma will marry one my daughters!" Soun confirmed in a warning  
tone.  
  
"Give me Ranma!" Shan Pu demanded angrily and started pulling. "No  
keep Ranma from Shan Pu, or you I kill."  
  
"Do you think we'll just let you take him?" Nabiki asked as she  
tugged him back.  
  
"Hey, cut that out!" Ranma urged as they played tug of war with  
him.  
  
Shan Pu released Ranma's arm and glared at Nabiki as she stepped up  
to her and planted a kiss on her cheek.  
  
"Now then," Soun said into the sudden silence, took a calming  
breath then yelled, "would someone care to explain!?"  
  
---end part 5--- 


	6. I'm gonna wash that Maximal right outta ...

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 6: I'm gonna wash that Maximal right out of your hair!  
  
---begin part 6---  
  
"Ohhh...," Kasumi gasped as Shan Pu planted a kiss on Nabiki's  
cheek. "Is that ...?" She paused in horror.  
  
"... the Kiss of Death?" Akane completed.  
  
"Now wait a minute," Ranma protested as he stepped between Shan Pu  
and Nabiki. "There's no need to go that far."  
  
"Darling," Shan Pu sighed as she cuddled against his frame while  
casting a warning glare at Nabiki.  
  
"Will you listen to me? I'm not marrying anyone!"  
  
"So you're the son-in-law," a new voice added from near the fire.   
"I never expected to find the Musk in Japan."  
  
"We're not the Musk," Ranma protested. "Who are you, anyway?"  
  
"She is great grandmother," Shan Pu introduced the old woman.   
"This Shan Pu lover, great grandma. He strong warrior, yes?"   
She leaned against him and sighed dreamily.  
  
"Would you stop doing that!?"  
  
"Oh, another guest! Where are my manners?" Kasumi blushed with  
embarrassment. "Would you like some tea, grand mother?"  
  
"Yes, thank you, Dear," the old woman chuckled merrily then  
regarded Ranma curiously.  
  
"I don't think they're 'guests', Kasumi," Akane told her sister  
crossly and glared at Ranma.  
  
"So you're not a Musk Warrior, eh?" the old woman asked. "Somehow  
I'm not surprised. Well then, there's still no reason you can't  
marry Shan Pu. Our way is to marry a strong man, where're you come  
from."  
  
"Are you deaf?" Soun yelled at the old woman. "I tell you Ranma  
will marry one of my daughters."  
  
"I say thee nay!" Tatewaki proclaimed as he strode into the camp.   
He pointed his sword accusingly at Ranma, who was still trying to  
prise Shan Pu from his body. "It is obvious that this ... cad is  
not worthy of your daughters' love and attention, Mister Tendo."  
  
"Yo, Pop!" Ranma growled at the tiger, "was there any point of even  
sending you out on patrol?"  
  
"Hey, it's a big mountain," the tiger protested.  
  
"Tendo Nabiki, my proud lioness!" Tatewaki pronounced as he strode  
up to her and presented a plush mouse, "Can you forgive me for ever  
doubting you. This is a mere token of my affection."  
  
"Thank you, Kuno, but it's not my style," Nabiki rejected the toy.   
"Anyway, I thought you liked Akane? You're really something,  
dumping her like this. She's right here, you know."  
  
"Dumping her?" Tatewaki asked in surprise and looked at Akane.  
  
"Please, Kuno," Akane tried to suppress the relief and laughter.   
"If it's Nabiki you've chosen, I won't stand in your way."  
  
"Oh, Akane!" Tatewaki sighed. "So sweet and understanding. So  
touching! How can I discard you! I love you both!" He moved to  
embrace her and received a fist to the face.  
  
"You're not thinking of two timing us?" Nabiki demanded with a  
frown.  
  
"How vulgar," Tatewaki dismissed. "Nabiki, you are so cool and  
proud. Akane, you are so pure and fierce. Do you call it deceit  
that I would seek to openly date you both?"  
  
"No I ...," Nabiki started to protest, then recalled the situation  
her father placed her in with Ranma and her sisters. "That is  
...."  
  
"Well, Son-in-law," Shan Pu's grandmother chuckled. "It looks like  
you have a rival for your women. Why don't you just switch to Shan  
Pu."  
  
"Oh, not at all," Kasumi piped up hopefully as she poured the tea.   
"Ranma can still choose me. I'm not seeing anyone and she's got  
Mousse." She blushed at her forwardness.  
  
"What you talking bout?" Shan Pu demanded in open confusion. "Mu  
Tzu just friend from childhood days."  
  
"What's this?" Tatewaki exclaimed. "Another Tendo sister? One as  
beautiful as the others. It would be a shame to let such a flower  
fall into the hands of that fiend Saotome. No fear, my ponytailed  
goddess, for I shall date with thee!"  
  
"What is your problem with me?" Ranma demanded hotly. "Haven't you  
got that 'werecat' bug out of your system yet?"  
  
"Ah, Saotome. Forsooth I was mistaken about the source of your  
power, yet it is plain that I was correct about the nature of your  
evil! Even though you have the Tendo girls, you consort with  
another. Die, enemy of women!"  
  
"Look who's talking!" Ranma accused as he dodged the sweep of  
Tatewaki's blade while still held in Shan Pu's clutches. "Yow!   
Would you let go, Shampoo?"  
  
"Shan Pu never let husband go!" she asserted and snuggled.  
  
"Oh ho ho ho! Never fear, Ranma Darling! I shall save you from  
these vile harridans! Then we can be wed!"  
  
"How many bride husband have?" Shan Pu demanded as Kodachi landed  
in the camp.  
  
"Will you all listen to me! I'm not going to marry anyone ...!"  
  
"... but one of Soun's daughters," the tiger interrupted with a paw  
bash to Ranma's head.  
  
"Never!" Tatewaki cried and lunged at Ranma but received Shan Pu's  
foot in his face instead.  
  
"How dare you strike a Kuno!?" Kodachi demanded. "Even though you  
were defending my Darling Ranma, I cannot allow it!"  
  
"Is not creepy spider girl Ranma," Shan Pu declared as she finally  
released him to face off against Kodachi. "Is Shan Pu Ranma!"  
  
"Hey!" Akane growled as she advanced on Kodachi, "don't think I've  
forgotten about your cowardly attack on my sisters."  
  
"Cowardly?" Kodachi laughed. "I was merely ..."  
  
---  
  
"So, you speak Japanese very well, grandmother," Kasumi observed  
calmly over the sounds of the brawl.  
  
"I haven't lived a hundred years for nothing," the old woman  
chuckled as she sipped her tea and observed the fight.  
  
"Oh, then you're not as old as you look," Nabiki cracked wisely.  
  
"So if you're not really the Musk," the old woman asked pointedly,  
"then how did you gain their power?"  
  
"Ranma and his father stole into the Musk's fortress and discovered  
their secret," Nabiki replied cautiously. "What do you know of the  
Musk?"  
  
"Not much," the old woman supplied candidly. "I was surprised to  
hear that they still existed. And Son-in-law has been sharing  
their secret?"  
  
"Not exactly," Nabiki observed. "We think someone from the Musk  
has been reformatting Ranma's enemies for some reason."  
  
"Why would they do that?" the old woman demanded. "The Musk were  
reputed to guard their secret zealously."  
  
"Why don't we just ask that nice Kuno boy?" Kasumi wondered.  
  
"Because he's an idiot," Nabiki supplied blithely then added,   
"actually, because it's not likely they'd have told him the truth."  
'... or that he'd recognise it if they did,' she added silently.  
  
---  
  
"Don't interfere in my fight!" Akane protested loudly as Ranma  
swept her off her feet just as a web-tossed Shan Pu chrashed into  
the tree behind where she'd been standing.  
  
"Oh, spider girl so good with trick web," Shan Pu had to admit as  
she sliced through the strand binding her feet with her sword.   
Unfazed by the impact she added jauntily, "still, creepy girl is  
not being enough good at beating Shan Pu!"  
  
"We shall see about that, you foreign trash!" Kodachi laughed as  
she readied another strand.  
  
"Saotome, release the fair Akane at once!" Tatewaki ordered as  
he gave chase. "Come back here and fight, you coward."  
  
Ranma sprang off a branch, deposited the girl on the ground then  
somersaulted towards Tatewaki only to cartwheel to the left as the  
sword slashed down in his path.  
  
"Hold still, Saotome," Tatewaki yelled, "so I may deliver righteous  
justice to yow!" A loop of silk cord wrapped around Tatewaki's  
waist and yanked him into the air.  
  
"Ho ho ho ho!" Kodachi proclaimed as she hurled Tatewaki towards  
a boulder. "I cannot let even my brother harm my Darling Ranma!"  
  
"Is not girl Ranma!" Shan Pu protested as she jump kicked Kodachi  
in the head. "Is Shan Pu Ranma!"  
  
"Hey, I'm not a possession, you know," Ranma observed as he rolled  
to his feet.  
  
"Beast Mode," Tatewaki snarled, transformed then rolled in the air  
to spring off the boulder and dive at Ranma with slashing talons  
and snapping jaws.  
  
Ranma tumbled backwards, shouldered the ground and kick-tossed the  
'raptor high into the air. "Say, you've gotten better, Kuno," he  
observed. "Still not good enough to beat me, but not bad."  
  
Tatewaki transformed as he plummeted and held his sword ready.   
"Ha! I, the Golden Meteor, have thee now! Prepare to taste  
defeat, Saotome."  
  
"Taste my feet," Ranma grinned, transformed and sprang towards the  
plummeting cyborg swordsman.  
  
Their sword and paws slashed at each other as they passed, but  
neither came close enough to hit.  
  
"First blood!" Tatewaki cried triumphantly as he tumbled to his  
feet. His sword pointed victoriously towards the cheetah as it  
too landed on its feet.  
  
"What?" the cheetah gasped as he stared at the red servo fluid  
leaking from his flank. "Wow! You didn't even touch me!"  
  
"Now you taste the fruits of my training," Tatewaki gloated. "I  
shall be victorious."  
  
"Oh, I don't know about that," Ranma smirked. "You took quite a  
hit too."  
  
"What are you ...?" Tatewaki stopped asking to stare at the kanji  
scratched into his brazen armor. "How dare you mar a samurai's  
armor!?"  
  
"Hold still you vile harlot!" Kodachi yelled as Shan Pu  
demonstrated her acrobatic skill by playing leap frog with the  
beast warrior.  
  
Akane snarled furiously. She couldn't even keep up with the fully  
fleshed (in more ways than one, damn it) Joketsu warrior. Seething  
with envy she hurled herself at Kodachi, determined to show her  
skill was not to be ignored. "Hey! You're supposed to be fighting  
me!"  
  
High in the air Shan Pu suddenly saw an opening and thought  
maliciously as she dropped down, 'now is my chance to finish off a  
rival! This is too good!'  
  
---  
  
"That boy of yours is pretty good," Soun admired as he watched the  
fight.  
  
"Your daughter could do with some more agility though," Genma  
frowned. "I'll have to speak to Ranma about stepping up her  
training."  
  
Soun nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think we should help them?"  
  
Genma looked as Soun. Soun looked back. As one they exclaimed,  
"nah!"  
  
After a while Genma asked, "did you bring a shogi board?"  
  
"Of course!" Soun exclaimed and the two turned their back on the  
'training exercise' to get down to something serious.  
  
---  
  
"Akane!" Kasumi gasped as she dropped her tea cup. She was too  
distraught to notice the cup chip which, for those who knew her,  
was a sign of severe distraction indeed.  
  
Ranma, still in beast mode, turned at the alarm and sprang into  
action, with Tatewaki following not far behind. The cheetah  
barrelled into Shan Pu; knocking her from atop of Akane. His  
sensitive nose was suddenly filled with a pungent herbal scent,  
giving the Joketsuzoku warrior an opening to flee. Somehow the  
big cat did not see so cuddlesome to her at that moment.  
  
"Tendo Akane!" Tatewaki exclaimed as cradled her. Gazing into  
her eyes he asked, "art thou unharmed, My Love?"  
  
Those eyes clouded in confusion then cleared. "I feel fine," she  
replied and brushed her hair. "I feel strangely ... refreshed.   
Say, who are you, anyway?"  
  
"What art thou saying?" Tatewaki demanded.  
  
"You're certainly being fresh," Akane observed and she pushed out  
of his grasp. "Have we met somewhere?"  
  
"I am Kuno Tatewaki," the swordsman proclaimed, "the Bronze Dragon  
of Furiniken High! Surely thou canst have forgotten thy love!"  
  
"You're ... my lover?" Akane reeled in shock.  
  
"Nay, I said ..." Tatewaki paused in mid correction. "Yea, verily  
that is so."  
  
"Gee, Kuno, have _you_ forgotten your 'fierce lioness'?" Nabiki  
asked mockingly as her beast mode landed on Tatewaki's head. "I'm  
crushed! How will I ever get over you? Seriously, Akane, are you  
sure you're okay?"  
  
"Oh my!" Akane exclaimed in shock. "A talking cat!"  
  
"I'm your sister, Nabiki," the cat observed. "How could you have  
forgotten me?"  
  
"Uh, Nabiki, maybe you'd better transform," Ranma said and  
maximised himself.  
  
"Who are you people?" Akane gasped as she shuttled her gaze  
between Ranma and Nabiki. "What are you?"  
  
"What did that shampoo do to you?" Nabiki asked as she peered  
down at her befuddled sibling and sniffed.  
  
"Tendo Nabiki," Tatewaki fumed. "Will you please get off of my  
head?"  
  
"Oh gosh!" Kasumi exclaimed as she reached the fighters. "It  
sounds like you have amnesia, Akane."  
  
"That's okay," Soun said as he hugged his youngest daughter.   
"As long as my little girl hasn't forgotten me."  
  
"And who are you, sir?" Akane asked. "You're being awfully  
familiar, aren't you?"  
  
"Wah! My baby's forgotten her Daddy!" Soun's floodgates were  
released.  
  
"Shan Pu," Ke Lon frowned up a tree. "What did you do to the  
girl? You know the Xi Fa Xian Gao Shiatsu is not to be used  
that way!"  
  
"Shan Pu only try make girl forget everything _about Ranma_," the  
treed girl replied petulantly, "but husband be interrupting. Bad  
husband! Shan Pu punish, yes."  
  
Ranma gasped, "you mean that Akane has forgotten ..." He trailed  
off and stared at the girl.  
  
"Who's Akane?" Akane wondered in bewilderment.  
  
"... everything," Ke Lon confirmed. "So it would seem."  
  
---  
  
"The Xi Fa Xiang Gao Shiatsu technique uses a combination of  
herbal essences and pressure points to manipulate memory," Ke  
Lon explained as they gathered around the campfire.  
  
"That sounds, interesting ..." Kodachi exclaimed and leaned  
forward eager to hear the details.  
  
"It sounds sort of like retrophrenology," Genma mussed.  
  
"Exactly," Ke Lon said then blinked in confusion. "Eh? What?"  
  
"Phenology was the 'science' of judging a person's personality by  
the bumps on his head," Nabiki supplied.  
  
"That's correct," Genma agreed with a nod. "So it stands to reason  
that you can change a person's personality ..."  
  
"You are _not_ going to hit my daughter in the head!" Soun yelled  
at his old friend.  
  
"Only a total idiot would try that!" Kasumi exclaimed in shock.  
  
"I did not!" Genma protested then flustered, "that is ... I mean  
..."  
  
"You people are weird," Akane commented as she drew away from them.  
  
"Anyway," Ke Lon continued. "To cure the Akane, all you need is  
secret formula 911 shampoo. Any Healthy Goodness store in China  
will know how to make it."  
  
"Then there's no time to waste!" Ranma exclaimed as he stood up  
suddenly. "To China! I'll get that shampoo even if I have to swim  
there. It'll be hard, but I did it befo.... Ow! What'd ya do  
that for?"  
  
Ranma rubbed his head where Ke Lon had clubbed it and turned to  
stare at the bottle of formula 911 which she dangled before his  
face. "Oh .... Hey! Give me that!"  
  
"Do you think it will be so easy?" Ke Lon asked as she hopped away  
from Ranma and tucked the bottle in her robes. "I will cure the  
girl when you agree to marry Shan Pu."  
  
"Oh, great grandmother is so so smart!" Shan Pu exclaimed joyously.  
  
"Why you old ...," Ranma growled and cracked his mechanical  
knuckles.  
  
---end part 6--- 


	7. Where's Akane? Who's Akane? What's Aka...

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 7: Where's Akane? Who's Akane? What's Akane?  
  
---begin part 7---  
  
Ryoga tried to stay out of his beast mode as long as possible. It  
wasn't as though he wanted to be a rat. However he'd found that  
he could only remain in cyborg mode for so long before he had to  
resume beast mode.  
  
Sometimes that had problems he hadn't expected.  
  
"Oh, how cute!"  
  
---  
  
"How diabolical," Soun bawled after hearing Ke Lon promise to cure  
Akane's complete amnesia only if Ranma agreed to marry Shan Pu.  
  
"It's not so bad," Genma exclaimed suddenly.  
  
"Well, she is fairly cute," Ranma observed and received a blow to  
the head to keep him in line.  
  
"You were saying, Mister Saotome?" Nabiki asked as she lowered her  
fist and stared at it thoughtfully. 'Hmmm, my training with Akane  
has some benefit after all.'  
  
"This isn't a problem at all," Genma continued.  
  
"You know another cure?" Soun asked suddenly hopefully.  
  
"Yes," Genma replied. "I mean, no. However, I'm sure her memory  
will come back in time. Meanwhile we'll just have Ranma marry the  
girl."  
  
"But what about joining the schools? Ranma can't marry Shampoo!"  
  
"I meant marry your daughter, idiot! You see, while caring for her  
..."  
  
~~~ flash  
  
"Oh, Ranma, you've been so wonderful to me all this time," Akane  
sighed as she gazed into his eyes.  
  
"Taking care of you is the least I could do," Ranma explained as he  
gazed back.  
  
"You've been so patient, and kind and .... I feel that I've grown  
so close to you."  
  
"Oh, Akane!"  
  
"Oh, Ranma!"  
  
Cherry blossoms floated in the air around them as the leaned closer  
and ....  
  
~~~ back  
  
"Come up with a better plan, idiot!" Ranma ordered as he lifted his  
fist off of his father's head.  
  
"Saotome!" Tatewaki snarled furiously. You could almost hear the  
growl of a 'raptor in his voice. "Your playboy ways are to blame  
for this tragedy! Prepare to die!"  
  
"How will that help Akane?" Nabiki demanded as Tatewaki slashed at  
her fiancee.  
  
"You have a point!" Tatewaki admitted then cocked his head in  
contemplation. "Ah! Ha! Saotome! Prepare to be married!"  
  
"I just said I ain't marrying Akane!"  
  
"Not Akane, you dolt!" Tatewaki thundered.  
  
"Oh Ho Ho Ho!" Kodachi cried as she draped her form over  
Ranma's armoured frame. "I will make such a lovely bride."  
  
"Get off of me!"  
  
"Creepy spider girl asking Shan Pu wash hair," the Joketsu  
warrior threatened.  
  
"Brother Dearest, what are you doing?" Kodachi demanded.  
  
"Do you think that I would just stand by idly while she brainwashes  
you, my Demented Sibling?"  
  
"Oh, and how will holding me in a headlock stop her?"  
  
"Stop her? Who mentioned 'stopping her'?"  
  
---  
  
'Who are these people?' She asked Herself, yet again, as another  
fight broke out among them. 'Are they all insane?'  
  
"Akane, do you feel alright?" a voice asked someone. "Akane?"  
  
A hand tapped Her on the shoulder, causing Her to jump. "What?   
Who are you? What do you want?"  
  
"I'm Kasumi, your sister," the woman replied with a worried frown.   
"Would you like some tea, Akane?"  
  
"Who's Akane?" She asked while turning Her head to look for the  
mysterious girl. 'Why does that name sound so familiar?' She  
wondered.  
  
"You're Akane, Akane," the Kasumi woman told Her patiently.  
  
"Oh. Well then I guess I would like some tea," She answered,  
paused, then asked, "Um, what's 'tea'?"  
  
"Oh bother," the nice Kasumi woman sighed, then began to explain  
about the mysteries of that 'tea' stuff and turned to set a kettle  
on the fire.  
  
---  
  
"Now. Give me that shampoo, Old Ghoul," Ranma demanded while the  
Kuno siblings squabbled in the background.  
  
The old woman chuckled and shook the bottle at him. "Do you think  
you can take it from me, Son-in-law? Here it is! Come and get ...  
hey! How did you get to be so fast?"  
  
"Oh! Husband snatch bottle from Great Grandmother? Is very good,  
yes!?"  
  
Ranma fehhed as he held the bottle up triumphantly. "I was pretty  
fast _before_ becoming part chee... Hey!"  
  
"You're also too cocky for your own good," Ke Lon smirked after she  
knocked the bottle out of his hold with her staff. "Still, you're  
the one for Shan Pu, alright."  
  
Shan Pu caught the bottle and tucked it between her breasts. "Oh!   
Husband want bottle, only have to take!" She blinked coyly at him.  
  
---  
  
"That was really pathetic, Ranma," Nabiki commented crossly. "How  
could you do something like that? Have you no respect for a  
woman's feelings? You just don't do things like that to a girl!"  
  
"What was I supposed to do?" he complained. "I got the shampoo  
from Shampoo didn't I?"  
  
"Yes .... But did you have to promise to go on a date with her to  
get it?"  
  
"Sheesh! What did you expect me to do? Pluck it from her b-b-b...  
bodice? Anyways, let's get this shampoo to Akane and .... Kasumi,  
have you seen Akane?"  
  
"Oh Ranma," the girl cried suddenly as she turned at his approach,  
"she was just here a moment ago, but she seems to have wandered  
off."  
  
"Ranma!" Soun cried, suddenly just there, and grabbing Ranma by the  
shoulders. "Find my little girl! She's lost in the woods alone  
with no memory. My poor baby!"  
  
"Jeez, don't blow a gasket," Ranma exclaimed as he pried the man  
from him. "How far could she have gotten?"  
  
---  
  
Cheetahs were not renown for their tracking ability, and Ranma  
was a complete novice himself, but they really did have a good  
sense of smell and that shampoo was fairly pungent. With the  
Joketsu warrior helping, finding where the girl had wandered off to  
(probably after forgetting what she was doing, where she was going  
and where she had come from) should have been easy enough.  
  
The complication was that the clear trail abruptly ended with  
neither sign, sound nor scent of Akane.  
  
"It's like she just grew wings and flew away," the cheetah  
muttered.  
  
"Shan Pu agreeing. No being sign fight, yes?" Shan Pu observed as  
she looked around. "Girl no hiding tracks. Now no tracks. Very  
strange, yes?"  
  
"Like you care," the cat muttered darkly from her perch on the  
cheetah's back. "I don't know why you had to come along."  
  
"What silly cat girl talking," Shan Pu snorted. "Husband knowing  
how good hunter Shan Pu being." The warrior sniffed. "Shan Pu not  
knowing why little kitty cat come along."  
  
"Akane is my sister," the cat protested. "Besides I'm not about to  
trust you alone with Ranma."  
  
"Shampoo did track us all over China," the cheetah pointed out,  
lashed his tail then stared about the clearing. "Something is not  
right about this."  
  
"Looks like we'll have to form a search party after all," the cat  
commented.  
  
"Would you stop doing that, Nabiki," Ranma protested.  
  
"Huh?" the cat inquired and looked at her feet to find her claws  
digging into Ranma's back. "Oh, sorry about that."  
  
---  
  
Meanwhile, 'Charlotte' was having problems of his own, thanks to  
Shiratori Azusa's ability to find even a rat to be cute. It wasn't  
being carried around and cuddled like a plush toy that he minded so  
much; Azusa might have been short, but her package was developed  
well enough to give him nosebleeds. It was that damned collar that  
locked him in beast mode. That, and her playboy partner, Sanzenin  
Mikado!  
  
"Stop!" Azusa screamed as she fairly flew across the rink. "Don't  
you hurt my widdle Charlotte!"  
  
"Vile rodent!" Mikado yelled as his skate sliced just passed the  
rat's head. "You have interfered with my womanising for the last  
time!"  
  
"Do your girl chasing on your own time!" Azusa ordered as she  
pirouetted and clubbed her skating partner in the head with her  
dainty, but skate-booted, foot. "And leave poor Charlotte alone!"  
  
Grabbing the rat by the collar she zipped away across the rink.   
"Oh, did the mean man hurt my sweetums?" she asked and brought him  
up to her face. "Azusa will kiss it all better, mm!"  
  
At which point the rat's nose sprayed servo fluid and he passed  
out.  
  
"That is disgusting," Mikado told his partner. "How can you kiss  
such a horrid creature?"  
  
"She is a cute little mousy!" Azusa defended her pet.  
  
"He is a big fat rat!" Sanzenin accused.  
  
"You're just jealous!" Azusa countered and stuck her tongue out at  
her partner.  
  
"Why would I be jealous of a rat?"  
  
---  
  
The velociraptor stalked through the mountain woods. Kodachi  
sprang from branch to branch above him, sometimes as a spider, but  
mostly as a gymnastic cyborg.  
  
"Soatome Ranma," the 'raptor snarled, not for the first time, "if  
anything hath happened unto the fair Tendo Akane, I, Kuno Tatewaki,  
the Bronze Dragon of Furiniken, swear that thou whilst pay dearly."  
  
"Oh ho ho ho ho!" Kodachi laughed. "Brother Dearest, do not  
worry. We shall find the girl and bring her back safe and sound."   
'And then,' Kodachi thought, 'I will make the wicked child pay!'  
In her own, sweet, demented way, Kodachi was concerned about  
finding Akane. She wanted to be able to do her in personally; this  
just wouldn't do.  
  
Neither found any sign of where Akane had vanished to. Alas it  
didn't occur to either to wonder where Gosunguki had gone either  
but, then, they weren't the only ones to have forgotten the Gothic  
tarantula.  
  
---  
  
Ke Lon considered the tiger warily as she sprang along the ground  
beside him. There were tales of Musk going berserk or loosing their  
human minds from remaining in their bestial state for too long.   
The Musk were reputed to control their beast shapes through a style  
of martial arts, the Shokai Ken, which incorporated the movements  
of animals. However the groom, his father and the others had  
gained their forms, she wondered how much control over their animal  
natures they had from their martial arts training.  
  
She knew something about the Musk, of course, but it had been so  
long since they had 'interviewed' the women of the Joketsuzoku that  
they had been thought to have died out and their secret with them.   
However, through ties of blood and honour, they were technically  
still allies which made those who stole the Musk's secret were thus  
the Joketsuzoku's enemies as well.  
  
She had come to Japan expecting to find an enclave of Musk and  
revive the old alliance through Shan Pu. Finding that someone had  
the audacity, and ability, to steal their secret had been a shock.   
But the Law of the Joketsuzoku demanded that Shan Pu marry the boy,  
which was a predicament.  
  
Oh, certainly it wasn't the first time that a Joketsu warrior had  
been forced to marry her enemy, since the Law practically  
guaranteed it. However, marrying someone who had also incurred the  
wrath of someone as reputedly powerful as the Musk was never a good  
idea.  
  
Unless, of course, the boy could be made to share his secret with  
his wife and her village and was given training in Joketsuzoku Wu  
in return. If he was as promising a student as he seemed, they  
might all survive this after all.  
  
First she would have to gain the boy's trust, after having botched  
their first meeting. Antagonising him by withholding the girl's  
cure had seemed harmless; she had only intended to impress him with  
her abilities, then challenge him to accept some training in return  
for the cure. She had badly underestimated his abilities and  
hadn't expected the dratted girl to wander off.  
  
Why did it have to be so complicated?  
  
---  
  
"So where is Mousse?" the cat asked suspiciously from her perch  
atop the cheetah.  
  
"What you talking?" Shan Pu asked back as she ran along side them.   
"Mu Tzu back in China." She reflected and frowned, "how cat girl  
know Mu Tzu?" She slapped herself in realisation. "Aiya! Is not  
thinking same person, yes?"  
  
"Thick glasses, long robes, hidden weapons, wants to kill me," the  
cheetah growled. "Sound familiar? He's not in China."  
  
"Aiya! Husband think Mu Tzu take long hair girl? Why do?"  
  
"He wants to win you back," the cat replied for him.  
  
"Mu Tzu no have Shan Pu," the warrior protested. "Shan Pu defeat  
Mu Tzu when only three. He only friend being."  
  
"I guess he doesn't feel the same way," the cat observed. "So, is  
it possible?"  
  
"Mu Tzu very tricky, is so," Shan Pu admitted thoughtfully.  
  
"And Akane wouldn't even know to put up a fight," the cheetah  
growled, implying that this was Shan Pu's fault.  
  
"If being so, Mu Tzu no hurting girl," Shan Pu observed. "Is Ranma  
want kill, yes?"  
  
"Ranma!" the cat exclaimed nervously. "If Mousse has kidnapped one  
of my sisters ...?"  
  
"Your father can protect Kasumi, can't he?" the cheetah asked then  
thought about it for a moment and turned around.  
  
Shan Pu pipped up. "Husband move more fast if Shan Pu is carry  
kitty, yes?"  
  
The cat swiped the amazon's outstretched hand with a paw. "You  
think I'd trust myself in your hands?"  
  
---  
  
Ryoga had learned a new and very useful skill; lock picking. With  
that dreaded collar of off his rat mode's neck, he'd been finally  
able to return to cyborg mode. It was amazing how dexterous his  
rat form's paws were and really quite handy. He didn't know what  
he might have done with trotters, say, or even a cat's paws. Hmmm  
.... He'd have to remember that.  
  
He was very relieved to be able to stretch out again. He just  
hoped that he could find his way out of Shiratori's bedroom before  
the compact packet of cute and sexy returned and found ....  
  
"Eeeek!" Azusa screamed, though cutely. "What are you doing in my  
room?"  
  
Ryoga spun around to confront his accuser. That was a bad move as  
she had been preparing for bed. He backed off in panic at the  
sight that threatened to cause another nose bleed.  
  
"Ah! I can explain! That is ...." He tried to think fast. The  
last thing he wanted her to discover was that he was the rat she'd  
cuddled, kissed and undressed in front of. Oh, just thinking of  
that meant that he really had to hold his nose.  
  
"You!" Azusa accused and pouted up at him. "You're my widdle  
Charlotte, aren't you!?"  
  
"Whad?" Ryoga gasped. "I mean, how absurd. Do I lood lide a rad?"  
  
She looked him over, noticing the open collar in his hand, the rat  
features on his armor and the distinctive nose bleed. She clasped  
her hands together and peered up at him smiling with bright eyes.   
"Wes you are. Your widdle Azusa's widdle Char-wotte!"  
  
---  
  
Kasumi poured a fresh cup of tea to calm her father down and tried  
not to let her worry show. That would only set him off again and  
he was so bothersomely high strung. She smoothed her apron and  
looked up.  
  
"Oh, Akane, welcome back!" she sighed in relief. "Where have you  
been?"  
  
"Oh, just walking around," the girl replied vaguely, brushed her  
hair back and looked around. "It really cleared my head. Where is  
everybody?"  
  
"They're out looking for you, Akane," Kasumi said over her father's  
cries of joy. "Everyone's been so worried about you."  
  
"I can take care of myself, Nabiki," Akane protested angrily.  
  
"I'm Kasumi," Kasumi corrected.  
  
"Whatever," Akane replied crossly.  
  
"Akane!" Soun gasped in realisation and grasped her shoulders. "Is  
your memory coming back?"  
  
"A little, Mister Saotome," Akane said with a smile.  
  
"Wah!" Soun collapsed into a crouch. "My baby still doesn't  
remember me!"  
  
"I'm just kidding, Pop, really," Akane apologised and patted him  
on the back.  
  
---end part 7--- 


	8. Crimson Gambit

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 8: The Crimson Gambit  
  
---begin part 8---  
  
Shan Pu was starting to feel out of breath from trying to follow  
the pace set by her husband-to-be. She wanted to show him how well  
she could hunt and fight along side him, unlike that scared little  
cat on his back, but if they kept this pace up much longer she'd be  
forced to show how winded she was getting. She was proud that she  
was going to marry such a strong warrior but did his beast shape  
have to be so fast?  
  
The cat was amazed that the Joketsuzoku warrior was keeping up with  
Ranma. Nabiki was more amazed that she, herself, wasn't shaken  
loose. A cheetah's back was not the most comfortable place to  
ride; even as a cat. She was slightly terrified, as she hadn't  
quite got the hang of the 'always land on your feet' trick, but  
trusted to Ranma's reaction time if she lost her grip. Still,  
while she was in a hurry to check up on Kasumi as well, it surely  
wasn't break-neck-speed urgent!  
  
The cheetah grumbled to himself. He really wished that Nabiki  
would ease up with her claws, but that wasn't the worst. If there  
was one advantage to being a Beast Warrior, for Ranma it was the  
exhilarating speed of his beast mode. However, with Nabiki riding  
on his back in her cat mode and Shan Pu running beside him, he had  
to go so slow!  
  
The entire trio was almost relieved when a boulder on a rope swung  
across their path back to camp and smashed into a tree. It gave  
Shan Pu a chance to catch her breath, Nabiki an opportunity to  
maximise and get firm ground beneath her and Ranma looked forward  
to getting some exercise as he maximised and fell into a  
lazy-seeming combat-ready stance.  
  
Mu Tzu dropped down from the tree tops with only the slightest  
rustle of silk to announce his presence; his hands tucked up the  
sleeves of his robe and his glasses sat uselessly on top of his  
head.  
  
"Saotome!" Mu Tzu announced, pointing for dramatic effect, but  
spoiling it by pointing at Nabiki. "I have taken your woman  
hostage! If you want to see her again, you will agree to face me  
in man to man combat. These are my terms. If you win, you can  
have her back. But if I win, you will give up Shan Pu."  
  
"Shan Pu no give up!" the Joketsu declared with a little  
confusion, "anyway, what Mu Tzu talking? Mu Tzu wanting fight  
Ranma, no Shan Pu."  
  
"He means that he wants Ranma to give you to him, Shampoo" Nabiki  
clarified.  
  
"Sh-shsh-an Pu!" Mu Tzu exclaimed in surprise, dropped his glasses  
over his eyes and stared. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Shan Pu finding husband!" Shan Pu asserted happily. "Ranma dating  
Shan Pu later! Silly Mu Tzu keeping other girl, is okay, okay?"  
  
"Now wait a minute, you bi...!" Nabiki protested.  
  
"Alright, Mousse," Ranma interrupted, "I accept your challenge."   
He charged forward.  
  
"Not here, you fool!" Mu Tzu exclaimed as he jumped up onto a  
branch. "We will fight beside the waterfall!" He pointed to a  
neighbouring cliff face. "Come alone, tomorrow at dawn, or you  
will never see your woman again!"  
  
---  
  
"... So Ranma has to fight Mousse tomorrow to get Akane back,"  
Nabiki finished explaining to everyone after they'd called the  
search off.  
  
"But I'm right here," Akane pointed out. "So, there's no reason to  
go, right? I mean, it sounds like a trap."  
  
"' doesn't matter," Ranma said firmly. "Even if it is a trap, I  
gave my word as a man." He tapped his armoured chest with a thumb  
and scowled at the reminder.  
  
Genma and Soun nodded in agreement; even Tatewaki grudgingly added  
his assent. He didn't like that Ranma was so much be... had  
somehow gained a temporary advantage over himself but he had to  
admit that his adversary was acting with some honour.  
  
"Oh Ho Ho Ho!" Kodachi announced with maniacal good cheer. "Ranma  
Darling, to be rid Tendo Akane and the soap girl both, you need  
only loose."  
  
"Never fear, Akane," Tatewaki pronounced. "Should Saotome loose,  
then I shall challenge this villain and win you back myself!"  
  
"Oh, thanks ever so much," Akane exclaimed with a worried frown,  
"but Ranma can't possibly loose. I'm not worried."  
  
"Is true," Shan Pu agreed cheerfully. "Husband too too good!"  
  
"In any case," Ke Lon admitted, "Mu Tzu can't possibly have Shan  
Pu. He was once spurned by her. Joketsuzoku Law is absolute."  
  
"Absolutely!" Shan Pu nodded brightly.  
  
"Besides," Soun pipped up, "the terms of the challenge didn't  
say Ranma had to give Akane away if he lost, did they? Just that  
Mousse would give her back."  
  
"But if Akane's here," Kasumi wondered, "who is Mousse holding  
hostage?"  
  
The Saotome, Tendo and Kuno families and the Joketsuzoku pair  
exchanged puzzled glances, confirmed that everyone was accounted  
for then shrugged. "I have no idea," Akane summed up with a  
nervous frown.  
  
"Silly Mu Tzu once thinking pig being Shan Pu," the young warrior  
remembered.  
  
"He's blind as a bat without his glasses," Ke Lon confirmed and  
stated, "whoever it is, they will be fine until tomorrow. It is  
only the groom the boy wants."  
  
---  
  
With the darkening sky announcing the lateness of the day, Tatewaki  
dragged his sister off to their campsite and Ke Lon left to set up  
the Joketsuzoku's camp. Only Shan Pu remained behind.  
  
"Ranma take Shan Pu date now, is okay, okay?" Shan Pu asked eagerly  
as she entwined herself around his arm and tugged him away from the  
fire.  
  
"Ranma has to train now," Nabiki informed the Joketsu warrior  
coldly. "He has a challenge to fight tomorrow, right? This is no  
time for dating."  
  
'Oh damn,' Kasumi thought ruefully, 'that means a moonlight walk is  
out of the question.'  
  
"What's this?" Akane asked suddenly in mild confusion. "I thought  
Ranma was dating Nabiki."  
  
"Oh no," Kasumi corrected gently before Nabiki could agree. "You  
still haven't got all your memory back, have you? Ranma hasn't  
decided which of us he's going to marry yet. He hasn't even had a  
chance to take me -any of us- on a date yet."  
  
"Is decided," Shan Pu asserted firmly, "Ranma marrying Shan Pu."  
  
"Hey! I only agreed to one date," Ranma protested in his defence.  
  
"And that was just to get the shampoo to cure Akane's amnesia,"  
Nabiki argued. "We don't need it now, so ...."  
  
"Long hair girl still no in right head," Shan Pu pointed out  
quickly and pulled out her shampoo set. "Shan Pu fixing, is okay,  
okay?"  
  
"No!" Akane backed away from her rapidly. "I mean, you've messed  
with my head enough already."  
  
Kasumi pressed her hands gently on Akane's shoulders and advised in  
concern, "maybe you should let her. You are still having trouble  
remembering things, after all."  
  
"Do you think we could trust her," Nabiki drove in a wedge. "They  
tried to trick Ranma into marriage by offering a cure Akane doesn't  
really need, after all."  
  
"Is no being so," Shan Pu countered. "Memory no come back when  
Shan Pu doing Xi Fa Xiang Gao Shiatsu right."  
  
"And that's supposed to reassure me?" Akane asked alertly.  
  
Shan Pu blinked and, realising that that argument wasn't her best  
line of defence, changed tactics. "Does no matter, yes? Ranma  
promise date Shan Pu. Word as man, is so?"  
  
"I guess," Ranma admitted to her then evasively added, as the other  
girls turned on him, "but not now, okay!"  
  
"Is okay," Shan Pu nodded and relinquished his arm. She was happy  
enough to have gotten him to promise. "Husband fight Mu Tzu  
tomorrow, then take wife on date, is okay, okay? Bye bye!"  
  
"Ranma!" Soun exploded, suddenly appearing right behind him, "how  
dare you ask another girl out when you're supposed to be dating my  
girls!"  
  
---  
  
The cheetah prowled around the camp. The Kuno siblings and  
Joketsuzoku had returned to their own camps but he expected that  
there was little chance that they would try launch a surprise  
attack during the night. He was less certain about Mu Tzu, but  
he, too, would probably wait for the duel. Still, too many people  
had found where they were camped already for Ranma's piece of mind.  
  
If it had been just him, he would have been fine. Challenges were  
something he was used to handling. But the way the Tendo girls  
were getting drawn into it didn't sit right with him.  
  
On reflection, training in the mountains to prepare for the Musk  
Beast Warriors, instead of remaining in the city, might have been  
not such a great idea. Out here, how would he know if an animal  
was what it seemed or a Musk in animal disguise? It was no wonder  
that he had grown nervous after the day's events.  
  
Pausing outside the girls' tents, the cheetah sniffed the air in  
puzzlement. Something wasn't quite right about the scent but he  
couldn't decide what was wrong. He settled down on his haunches  
to puzzle it out. Something was missing, that was it, he figured;  
but what?  
  
There was Kasumi's scent, with a lingering smoky aroma from the  
camp fire, Akane's scent, fresh and strong (though she'd probably  
take that as an insult) was clear in the next tent and then there  
was Nabiki's scent, more feline than human with the tang of metal  
and rather fainter than the other two. There was also a faint  
trace of Soun from when he'd checked on the girls earlier, and  
Ranma really wished he didn't drink and smoke so much, but that  
wasn't the problem.  
  
Then the cat dropped from the tree line and rubbed up against him  
before snuggling down beside him. "Couldn't sleep, Ranma?" she  
asked then accused, "you're not worried about the fight tomorrow,  
are you?"  
  
"Nah," the cheetah snorted his contempt. "I'm just .... What  
about you, Nabiki?"  
  
"What about me?" the cat countered. "I don't have a duel to fight  
tomorrow." Her eyes narrowed. "Anyway, why are you sniffing  
around our tents?"  
  
"Well, I thought I smelled something missing," the cheetah replied,  
"and I was right. You shouldn't wander off like that, you know."  
  
The cat sniffed, "gee, Ranma, I didn't know you cared." Her ears  
twitched guiltily as she stared off into space. Suddenly she  
asked, "do you have trouble with your beast mode?"  
  
"W-what do you mean?"  
  
"Do you find yourself behaving like a cat? I keep finding myself  
doing catty things. Like I just had an urge to prowl and ....   
Does that happen to you?"  
  
"A little," he admitted in embarrassment. "Pop doesn't seem have a  
problem though. I thought it was because I was trained in the  
Neko Ken."  
  
"The what?" the cat asked as she turned towards him alertly.  
  
"The Neko Ken. It's ... a style that mimics the movements of  
cats," he explained without going into the embarrassing details. "I  
only really mastered it after I got this body."  
  
"Do you think you could train me in it?" Nabiki asked, eager to  
get some 'personal training' time alone with Ranma without Akane  
joining the lesson.  
  
"Er, not really," the cheetah said evasively; a shudder ran through  
his body. "The training is rather intense. I might be able to do  
something, though. You really should train in that body, I guess."  
  
"Kasumi," Akane said as she popped her head through the flap, "stop  
flirting with Ranma and get to bed. Some of us are trying to  
sleep, you know."  
  
"I'm Nabiki," the cat corrected. 'Maybe we should have let Shampoo  
fix her head.'  
  
"Whatever," Akane said crossly as she climbed out of the tent.   
"Ranma, would you walk me to the bushes. I need to ,ah, you know,  
but I don't want to leave camp on my own."  
  
"Ah, right," the cheetah agreed with embarrassment, "no problem,  
Akane." He stood up, stretched out and sniffed the air. His nose  
twitched in puzzlement and he took a larger whiff of Akane's scent.  
  
"Ranma?" the girl asked in alarm and backed off nervously. "Wh-  
what's the matter?"  
  
"Your scent. It's not...." The cheetah paused in realisation.   
"Awe, jeez! No wonder I lost your trail. Shampoo's shampoo's  
scent wore off."  
  
"Oh. Is that all," the girl muttered in relief as she continued to  
eyeball the hunting cat warily. "You know, I'd really prefer it if  
you'd change," she added with a nervous titter.  
  
"Whatever," the cheetah sighed. "Ranma Maximise!"  
  
---  
  
"Ranma," Akane asked in a curious tone from behind a bush, "could  
you tell me how Nabiki got, well ...."  
  
"Not that again," Ranma sighed. At least this would take his mind  
off of the rustle of clothe. "I told you I don't know what  
happened. I don't know how to make you a Beast Warrior."  
  
"Make me ...." Akane sounded startled. "Oh my, I never thought of  
that." Akane stepped out from behind the bush, leaving her flannel  
pyjamas hanging on the branches. Flicking back her long hair, she  
modelled her naked body in the moonlight. "Why would I want to  
swap this for metal?"  
  
Ranma's golden ponytail stood on end as though he'd just grabbed  
onto a Van der Graff generator. Servo fluids sprayed out of his  
nose as he windmilled around with arms flailing wildly. "Urk!" was  
the most intelligible thing he could say for several moments, so he  
repeated it several times.  
  
"What's the matter, Ranma?" Akane said seductively as she pressed  
against the fur lining on his back. "Don't you like this body? I'm  
sure it's a lot nicer to hold than Nabiki's." Her hands slipped  
around his waist and stroked his chassis.  
  
"Ak-! Akane! What are you doing?"  
  
"Don't be foolish," she replied. "Can't you tell? I'm marking my  
territory," the girl told him as she rubbed against him. Her  
scent, he realised, would cling to him and how would he explain  
that to Nab... - er, keep his father from making a fuss about it?   
"If you're up for grabs," Akane continued, "I'm staking my claim."  
  
"I'm not 'up for grabs'!" Ranma stated firmly.  
  
"Oh?" Akane said disappointedly but kept her arms around him. "So  
you've already decided on one of my sisters?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"You're not brushing us aside for that bimbo?" Akane accused and  
pulled away in heated anger.  
  
"That's not what I meant!" Ranma protested. "This whole. 'pick a  
fiancee' thing was our father's idea, not mine. I ain't marrying  
no one."  
  
"So you are up for grabs," Akane decided and moved in front of  
him. "At least, I can still persuade you to pick me." She placed  
her arms around his shoulders and wriggled her body in an  
interesting way.  
  
Ranma didn't know where to look. "If, if you think you can get to  
me by, by ...." Ranma tried to protest and pull away. "Akane,  
stop! You don't really want to do this. You'll regret it when you  
get your memory back." A tree cut off his retreat and Akane  
pressed her advantage.   
  
"I may not remember everything," Akane told him, "but a girl knows  
how she feels. Why don't you just give in?" she asked while  
looking at him through heavily lidded eyes then pulled herself  
close to his face. "I'm sure it will be very pleasant." Her head  
tilted back, her pursed lips lifted to his and ....  
  
"Way to go, Akane!" Soun cheered as he walked by on patrol. "Atta  
girl!"  
  
"Beast Mode!" Ranma exclaimed hastily as he felt the startled girl  
loosen her grip long enough from him to refold.  
  
Akane found herself holding a cheetah's head to her breasts and  
pouted as she released him. "I'm not that kind of girl, you  
pervert!"  
  
'Now that,' Ranma thought with mixed emotions, 'is the Akane I'm  
used to!'  
  
Tears of joy streamed down Soun's face as he walked back toward the  
camp. 'Now the union of our schools is assured when Ranma and ...  
my little girl ... do ....' The gears in his mind suddenly jammed  
as the image of just what they seemed about to do finally caught  
up with him.  
  
While Soun was trying to decided if that was a good thing or not, a  
moment latter a golden form rocketed passed him. A short while  
after that a fully clothed Akane stalked into the camp, fuming and  
muttering to herself. "Oh, you got away this time, but just you  
wait, Ranma, I'll get what I want from you yet!"  
  
Over hearing that set Soun to twitching. On one hand he was all  
for Ranma and Akane getting together, but on the other he thought  
they should at least wait until after the wedding.  
  
---  
  
Akane was so furious at having underestimated Ranma's resistance to  
her advances that she didn't notice the figure sneaking up on her  
until a foot tried to crack open her skull.  
  
"Shan Pu!" Akane cursed. "What are you trying to do?"  
  
"Obstacle try steal Shan Pu husband," the Joketsu warned as she  
moved in for the kiss. "Now Shan Pu killing!"  
  
"Is that so?" Akane asked as she looked about quickly and whipped  
her cheek dry.  
  
"No one close enough being for saving girl," Shan Pu grinned  
wickedly.  
  
"If you think you've got what it takes to handle me, Shan Pu,"  
Akane stated confidently, "you're in for a surprise!"  
  
"Enough is talking. Now husband stealing girl die!"  
  
---end part 8--- 


	9. The Power to Surprise

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
:\_/: Part 9: The power to surprise.  
  
---begin part 9---  
  
Kasumi, as usual, woke early to fix breakfast. She gave a friendly  
wave to Genma, who was stretched out beside the glowing embers  
after having kept watch during the night. The tiger's eyes  
remained firmly closed, but his ear twitched in recognition. She  
was sure he was quite alert even while taking a cat nap. It was  
reassuring to have so powerful a martial artist and beast warrior  
keep a watch over them at night.  
  
Kasumi stoked the fire and started slicing vegetables into the  
wok. As the sky began to lighten she walked over to Ranma's tent,  
tapped on the flap then pulled it back after a slight pause - it  
wasn't like she could catch him undressed (damn it).  
  
"Ranma Dear," she called softly and nudged the slumbering form,  
"would you like some breakfast before your match this morning?"  
  
On hearing the magic word, the cheetah stirred and yawned.  
  
"Oh!" Kasumi gasped and drew back, startled. The phrase, 'my,  
what big teeth you have,' flashed through her mind. She hadn't  
been quite so near to his beast form before. It was quite daunting  
to be reminded, up close, that he turned into a hunting cat.  
  
"Thanks, Kasumi," he rumbled, "I'm famished." He blinked the sleep  
from his cat's eyes then peered at the girl. "Are you alright,  
Kasumi?"  
  
"J-just fine, Ranma," she replied as the cheetah padded passed her  
and stretched in the brisk pre-dawn air.  
  
---  
  
Ryoga walked along the subway platform without really watching  
where he was going. His thoughts were as dark as the tunnel was  
getting.  
  
Azusa was the first person to show him kindness in a long time.   
She was awfully cute and sweet. She didn't care that he turned  
into a rat.  
  
That was the bad part. She really didn't care; in fact she  
preferred keeping him as her pet mousy. She was plain nuts. He  
was glad to have gotten away from her. Really!  
  
Ryoga pounded his fist into a wall, dislodging clods of dirt and  
rock. That was when he noticed that something was wrong.  
  
"Who turned out the lights?" he yelled, listened to the echo for a  
moment then transformed. The rat's eyes were a lot more sensitive  
to light, which was handy if you spent a lot of time alone in the  
dark.  
  
The tunnel was simply dug out of the earth. There was no sign of  
concrete walls nor tiled floors. Someone had moved the subway  
station while he wasn't looking. He hated it when that happened.  
  
Grumbling to himself, the rat turned around and scampered down the  
tunnel in search of the way back. With only two directions from  
which to choose he, of course, chose the other one.  
  
Eventually he saw the light at the end of the tunnel. That was  
when it hit him. 'It' being, of all things, a pig's hoof.  
  
"Eeek!" a girl screamed cutely. "A rat! Kill it, Katsunishiki!"  
  
The rat scurried for cover. Then he realised something important  
and concluded, 'that pig is using martial arts! There's more here  
than meets the eye.' "Ryoga Muskimise!"  
  
The massive pig backed off as the giant rat transformed into an  
armoured warrior, but then it adopted a sumo stance and advanced  
to protect its mistress.  
  
Ryoga snorted, "give it up, Musk. Why don't you fight me like a  
man?"  
  
The girl watched as her prize boar was beaten up horribly by the  
guy in the rat suit. Her emotions were mixed. On one trotter, her  
favourite sumo boar was receiving a savage thrashing but, on the  
other hoof, her grandfather told her that she must marry a man  
strong enough to beat her pig and this was the only one she'd  
found.  
  
Then again, she really didn't like rats! They were so dirty, not  
like pigs. They were so cowardly, not like pigs. They were just  
so very much not like pigs! How could she marry such a rat-like  
man?  
  
But he was so strong, like a pig. So handsome, like a pig. So  
robust, like a pig. And he'd just knocked Katsunishiki out! He  
was the perfect pig-like man she had to marry! Which was it to be?  
  
Ryoga stood over the fallen boar and discovered that the girl was  
staring at him with a confused expression and muttering to  
herself. Ignoring her, Ryoga grabbed the pig by the snout and drew  
back his fist to slap it awake; he wanted answers from the supposed  
Musk warrior.  
  
"Wait!" the girl cried desperately as she threw her arms around  
him. "You don't have to hurt my Katsunishiki any more! I'll  
marry you!"  
  
"What do you mean, you'll marry me?" Ryoga demanded in confusion.  
  
"You are my ideal man," the girl lied then explained. "I am Unryu  
Akari and my family has trained Sumo Pigs for generations."  
  
"Then this is really a pig?" Ryoga demanded incredulously.  
  
"Katsunishiki is the fourteenth champion of my Pig Sumo Dojo!"  
Akari introduced proudly. "Before he died, my grandfather said  
to me ...."  
  
"Akari must be with a strong man," an old man interrupted with the  
explanation, "I won't allow her to marry any man who can't beat  
our champion sumo pig, Katsunishiki!"  
  
"This is my grandfather," Akari pulled away from Ryoga and  
introduced. "I tried to find a nice, intelligent, kind and gentle  
man, but there was no one like that who could defeat Katsunishiki!"  
  
"So in the end I decided that _anybody_ who could defeat  
Katsunishiki would be okay," the old man concluded. "You're the  
one for my Akari, alright!"  
  
"I love you! I love you! I love you!" Akari repeated in an effort  
to convince Ryoga; or perhaps herself.  
  
'Why can't I ever meet a normal girl?' Ryoga wondered sourly as he  
made his escape.  
  
---  
  
"What do you mean, Akane's gone again?" Soun demanded.  
  
"When I went to get her up for breakfast after Ranma left, she  
wasn't in her tent," a worried Kasumi explained patiently as she  
picked the wok off the fire, " It doesn't look like she slept in it  
at all!"  
  
"I haven't seen her since she had Ranma walk her to the bushes last  
night," Nabiki observed as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.  
  
"I saw her walk back towards the camp after trying to seduce  
Ranma," Soun added.  
  
"Well, she didn't make it ba... what!?" Kasumi noted and screamed  
as the full shock of her father's announcement sank in. The wok  
arced into the air and the contents went flying.  
  
Genma hastily caught the tossed breakfast in a desperate display of  
martial-arts-food-saving then plastered a silly grin across his  
face. He knew that nature would take it's course; he just hadn't  
expected Akane to be the one to make the first move!  
  
"After she _what_!?" Nabiki demanded; suddenly she was very much  
awake.  
  
"That ... that's not like Akane," Kasumi exclaimed in bewilderment  
as she pressed her palm to her cheek. "She's such a sweet girl."   
'And I thought she'd be a late developer.'  
  
"That's _so_ not like Akane," Nabiki agreed. "Damn, that shampoo  
of Shampoo's really messed with her head."  
  
"And now she's gone wandering off again!" Soun cried. "Now the  
schools will never be united. Oh, my poor little girl!"  
  
"Don't you worry, Tendo!" Genma exclaimed. "We'll find the girl  
and then make Ranma do the decent thing and marry her."  
  
"Now wait a minute!" Nabiki protested.  
  
"Oh no," Kasumi exclaimed. "Ranma didn't ...do... anything, did  
he?"  
  
"He wouldn't!" Nabiki judged. 'Would he?'  
  
---  
  
"Construction engineering martial arts?" Ryoga asked as he munched  
on a ham sandwich. He'd wandered into the construction yard after  
escaping from the Unryu nuts and found the little man hammering  
rivets into a steel girder with his finger.  
  
"That's right," the friendly neighbourhood construction worker  
agreed over his BLT. "There's a whole set of techniques that are a  
lot safer to use than explosives or what not. Let's see, why don't  
you show me how you would shatter that boulder?"  
  
Ryoga snorted and struck the rock with his fist. It was too easy.   
Even before getting steel fists, Ryoga could perform such a simple  
feat.  
  
"Not bad, but I said shatter, not break. I do it like this ...."   
The little man tapped the rock with a finger, shattering the  
boulder into tiny shards.  
  
"How did you do that?" Ryoga demanded as he stared wide eyed. Even  
with his metallic frame Ryoga wasn't that strong and the little man  
hadn't exerted himself at all.  
  
"It's simple," the worker said and titled back his safety first  
helmet. "Everything has a breaking point. You just have to find  
it. It is an old technique developed by quarry men in China."  
  
"Show me how!" Ryoga demanded. 'With this technique, I'll be able  
to get my revenge!'  
  
---  
  
A girl broke free of the rope binding her while her captors weren't  
looking, then climbed out of the cave to make a break for it. As  
she raced through the woods she realised that her former captors  
would soon track her down and looked for a way to throw them off  
her trail. However, when a way presented itself, she suddenly  
realised that she'd forgotten how to swim.  
  
It seemed that she'd forgotten a lot of things, but that one  
suddenly seemed to be rather more important at that moment. She  
began to thrash wildly; which was not a help at all. Then a  
grappling hook wrapped around her arm as she went under and it  
pulled the waterlogged girl out of the river.  
  
"Akane!" the gigantic tarantula exclaimed as he scuttled to the  
river bank. "Are you alright?"  
  
She sputtered water, peered at the spider through dripping hair,  
then brained it with a piece of flotsam; a rather waterlogged log.  
  
"She'll be fine," Mu Tzu observed as he reeled his grappling hook  
back into his sleeve. "Transform and take care of her while I deal  
with Saotome."  
  
"H...hi...karu, Ma...shki...mise!" the tarantula muttered from  
under the log.  
  
But, by the time Hikaru recovered, the girl had made her escape.  
  
---  
  
"I'm really not sure about this ...!" Ryoga stated his second  
thoughts.  
  
"Just extend your finger and concentrate on the point!" the  
construction worked instructed him. "See the point; be the  
point!"  
  
"That's easy for you to say!" Suspended high over the construction  
site, Ryoga whimpered and watched as the wrecking ball was pulled  
back then released.  
  
"Go Katsunishiki!" Akari yelled and the sumo pig dived in front of  
the swinging wrecking ball. "I'll save you, lover!"  
  
Ryoga's eyes widened as the ball hit the pig and kept on coming at  
him; carrying the very large and heavy pig with it.  
  
"Oh no!" Akari cried as she rushed over to the crash site.   
"Lover! Katsunishiki! Are you all right? Speak to me!"  
  
Ryoga briefly wondered if she was talking to him, or the pig, then  
passed out.  
  
---  
  
The cheetah maximised in mid air and Ranma landed in the clearing  
to look around warily. From what he'd seen of Mu Tzu, and been  
told by Shan Pu, he expected the place to be riddled with traps.   
There was plenty of places to conceal them in the riverside  
foliage and boulder speckled ground.  
  
"It took you long enough to get here, Saotome," Mu Tzu's voice  
sneered from the vegetation. "I would have thought even a  
womaniser like you would be more concerned about your girlfriend.   
I won't let you treat Shan Pu so callously!"  
  
"Get a grip, Mousse," Ranma advised the shrubbery as he searched  
for Mu Tzu's location. "I ain't interested in Shampoo and Akane  
spent the night safely in her tent."  
  
Mu Tzu laughed. "I assure you, Saotome, your woman is quite  
securely bound back at my camp. The only way you will see her  
again is to face me in man to man combat."  
  
Ranma snorted. "I don't know who you think you have, but Akane  
is quite safe back at my camp. 'sides, I ain't the one hiding  
here. Why don't you face me like a man?"  
  
"What do you take me for, Saotome? I am a master of hidden  
weapons and this field is my weapon!"  
  
Ranma leaped aside as a sharpened log swung across the clearing  
followed by a boulder from another direction then a series of  
other roped objects from various directions at once. Ranma  
flipped about the clearing, avoiding them with ease, until his  
feet touched down on the concealed pit.  
  
"Is that the best you can do?" Ranma's jeer stifled Mu Tzu's  
triumphant laugh. He stood on two of the many sharpened spikes set  
into the bottom of the pit. He flipped out of the pit and looked  
about. The roped objects with which Mu Tzu had herded him into the  
pit lay tangled around the clearing.  
  
"Well then, it looks like I will just have to get serious!" Mu  
Tzu's voice announced and the crossbows, with poison tipped  
quarrels, and the catapult, with exploding shot, were triggered.  
  
---  
  
"Oh dear, it sounds as if Ranma's fight is serious, Mister  
Saotome," Kasumi observed nervously at the sound of explosions. "I  
do hope he'll be okay!"  
  
"The boy will be fine," the tiger, on which she was riding,  
reassured her. "It's your sister we should be worried about."  
  
"This is about where I last saw my little girl," Soun decided from  
beside them. The cat leaped off of his shoulder and sniffed  
around.  
  
"It looks like there was a fight over here," the tiger observed and  
strode towards the area. "I'm afraid she didn't just wander off  
this time."  
  
Predicably, Soun began bawling.  
  
"Oh no!" Kasumi exclaimed and clutched the tiger's fur. "Are you  
sure, Mister Saotome?"  
  
"It was Shampoo," the cat hissed angrily as she caught scent of the  
Joketsu warrior's perfume.  
  
"Then we must find the amazon women!" Soun stopped crying to  
declare fiercely, suddenly wearing his samurai armor and  
brandishing his weapons.  
  
---  
  
Several blowgun darts peppered Ranma's armor as he dodged a volley  
of fiery arrows and bounced off the last of the burning rocks in  
mid air. He wasn't quite as swift in cyborg mode as he would have  
been as a cheetah but he was armoured and, after years of martial  
arts training, weaving through the barrage was almost a walk in the  
park.  
  
"Okay, Mousse, now you're starting to annoy me," Ranma declared  
as he flicked a barbed dart off of the bracer welded onto his  
forearm. "Come out of the bushes or I'll come in and hunt you  
down."  
  
"Go ahead, Saotome," Mu Tzu taunted. "Show me what an animal you  
are!"  
  
Ranma's eyes narrowed as he considered the riverside foliage.   
There would be lots of places to conceal traps within that growth.   
The smart thing would be to ignore Mu Tzu's taunts, but Ranma  
wasn't like that.  
  
He just wasn't the type to turn down a challenge!  
  
Still, he flipped back his blonde pony-tail and considered, "this  
is supposed to be a man-to-man fight, Mousse. Do you think I'd  
give you the satisfaction of forcing me into beast mode to find  
you?"  
  
---  
  
"Oh! Mister Saotome!" a startled girl exclaimed and began to  
explain, "I was just ...!" when she noticed that that tiger  
emerging from the shadows wasn't the one she expected. It wasn't  
just colour; the wings were a dead give away.  
  
Then hands wrapped around her from behind and squeezed. A voice  
announced, "I've caught her Min Tu! And I can feel her br-breasts!   
S-s-soft!"  
  
"You pervert!" the girl growled and reached for the silvery metal  
arms holding her.  
  
"You lucky dog, Lin Ma," the winged tiger announced as he  
transformed, then Min Tu winced as he watched Lin Ma discover a  
whole world of hurt. He backed away as the girl turned on him. He  
was a Beast Warrior of unparalleled strength, but dealing with  
angry and half-dressed girls was not something he was used to.  
  
---  
  
Ranma leapt from tree to tree, apparently barely avoiding the bear  
traps, pits nooses and trip wires set into ground or the garrottes  
and nets strung between branches as he searched for his hidden  
adversary. If there was one thing he could say about the master of  
hidden weapons, it was that he was industrious in setting traps.  
  
But eventually Ranma found ... the radio wedged into a hollow tree.  
  
"Really, Saotome, did you think that it would be that easy to defeat  
me?" Mu Tzu's voice taunted.  
  
Ranma fumed, then smirked. "I guess this means that I won. I'll  
just tell Shampoo that you forfeited the match."  
  
"Wh-what are you talking about?" Mu Tzu demanded.  
  
"You heard me," Ranma stated flatly, crossed his arms behind his  
head and started to leave. "I wonder what she'll think when she  
hears that you didn't even show up for the challenge?"  
  
"You can't just walk away from this, Saotome!"  
  
"Why not?" Ranma asked and made a pretence of looking around.   
"'Hey, Shampoo, I showed up, waited but didn't see Mousse  
anywhere. I guess he was too chicken to face me.'"  
  
"Why you ...? So you're just going to abandon your girlfriend?" Mu  
Tzu demanded incredulously.  
  
"Check your prescription, Mousse. Akane is safe and sound back at  
our camp. There's no way she can be in two places at once. She  
ain't my girlfriend anyway."  
  
---  
  
"Shan Pu?" Ke Lon exclaimed innocently. "I haven't seen her since  
last night. I assumed she was still out on her date with the  
groom."  
  
---end part 9--- 


	10. Revelations

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
'\_/' Part 10: Revelations.  
  
---begin part 10---  
  
Ranma turned his back and casually started to walk away from the  
trap-filled field. One thing which he had to give his opponent, Mu  
Tzu had to have been very busy to set everything up on his own over  
one night. He was stupid and cowardly, perhaps, but also  
industrious.  
  
"Alright, Saotome," Mu Tzu announced as he burst out of his hide  
and somersaulted through the air to land on the field. "You may  
have beaten my obstacle course, but you still haven't defeated  
me!" He landed with a heavy thud.  
  
Ranma dodged the knives thrown at his back and turned to flash  
an insolent grin at his opponent. He cracked his knuckles.   
"Okay, you gave me a nice warm-up, now, let's _begin_ this fight."  
  
"I'm going to _finish_ this fight, right now!" Mu Tzu boasted a  
warning and adopted a crane stance. His robes billowed in the  
morning breeze.  
  
"What trick are you going to pull out of your sleeve now?" Ranma  
demanded with a smirk. "Playing cards? Streamers? Pigeons?   
Maybe a rabbit?"  
  
The sunlight glinted off of Mu Tzu's glasses as he savoured the  
moment. Ranma mightn't be showing signs of exertion, but the  
ork-out was sure to have taken the edge off of his speed. "You've  
mocked the power of hidden weapons for the last time. Now face my  
new ultimate attack: the charge of the rhino!"  
  
"Is that like the blow of the ostrich leg? The hawk's talon?"  
Ranma demanded as he counted the moves off on his fingers, "or ...  
maybe the blow of the chicken egg?"  
  
"Beast mode!" Mu Tzu shouted and tore out of his robes.  
  
"Oh crap," Ranma muttered as the massive beast charged across the  
field. The 'charge of the rhino' wasn't a martial arts technique  
at all.  
  
"Tremble with fear, Soatome I will crush you like a ...!" Mu Tzu's  
threat was ended when he smashed his head into a tree. Solid wood  
shattered on impact, proving that Mu Tzu would be quite deadly, if  
he could but hit his intended target.  
  
"Get real, Mousse," Ranma smirked from atop of his opponent's  
back. "You may be a walking tank, but you're still as blind as a  
bat."  
  
The rhino shook his head clear of the smashed timber then bucked  
Ranma off of his back. Quite obviously he was no lumbering  
behemoth but a charging juggernaut. Like Ranma, his father, and  
Tatewaki, some of his martial arts skills carried over to his beast  
mode, though he was clearly unable to use his hidden weapons  
techniques.  
  
On the other hand, his huge body and horns were all the weapons he  
needed.  
  
"Sooner or later, Saotome, I will trample you into the ground," Mu  
Tzu snorted as he skid to a stop then turned. "You can run, but  
you can't hide forever. I can smell your fear."  
  
"Who's afraid of the big bad rhino?" Ranma paraphrased as he dodged  
another charge. The trip to Spain to study martial arts bull  
fighting hadn't been wasted. "But if you've been reformed, that  
means that the Musk must be close." 'Damn, that Kuno must have  
lead them here after all. But what are they playing at?'  
  
The rhino ploughed the turf as he pirouetted then churned ground  
for another charge. "How long do you think you can keep dodging  
me, Saotome?" Mu Tzu demanded as Ranma dodged him once more.   
Minor annoyances, like scattered boulders and logs, were knocked  
out of his path like nine pins.  
  
But the major annoyance remained elusively agile.  
  
"Hey, I can keep this up all day," Ranma informed him with a mock  
yawn, "but I've got better things to do with my time."  
  
"And how are you going to stop me?" the rhino demanded. "I can  
take any blow you dish out. There's nothing you can do to mee...."  
  
Mu Tzu's voice trailed out as his feet started churning only air  
when he dropped over the edge. He made a note that in future he  
would not pick the top of a waterfall for his fights. 'This isn't  
over, Saotome!' he vowed as the river bank rushed up to meet him.   
He rolled and tumbled, and suddenly had a chance to discover how  
well rhinos could swim.  
  
Ranma's eyes narrowed as he watched the blind beast flounder.   
Sometimes he hated being the hero, but he guessed that he needed  
some answers.  
  
---  
  
"Do you expect us to believe that, Cologne?" Nabiki demanded  
coldly as she, her sister and their father stood with Genma's tiger  
mode between them and the little old woman. You can't grow up  
beside a dojo without learning that martial artists improve with  
age and, by that standard, the frail old woman must had 'improved'  
considerably.  
  
"And how do I know you haven't done something to Shan Pu?" Ke Lon  
countered. She considered that Shan Pu could handle the only ones  
able to challenge her physically: powerful beast warriors or not,  
they were still only men. However, it was possible that the cat  
girl was sneaky enough to eliminate the competition in other ways.  
  
"How do we know that Shampoo isn't helping Mousse ambush Ranma  
right now?" Nabiki returned as the though occurred to her. "We  
have only your word, and his, that you aren't working together."  
  
"In that case," Ke Lon countered with a snort of contempt, "how do  
you know that there isn't an army of Joketsuzoku warriors hiding in  
the woods around us?" She blithely returned to her campfire meal.  
  
"Oh dear," Kasumi muttered as her eyes joined the others in darting  
about nervously.  
  
Except for Nabiki who just nodded thoughtfully. "You can't make  
Ranma marry you grand-daughter by force, or by openly harming his  
friends, but that doesn't mean you're innocent. Shampoo's scent  
was there as well as signs of a struggle. They can't both have  
been abducted; can they?"  
  
Ke Lon's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps; if those two were fighting, for  
some reason, someone could have attacked after one had been  
defeated, or one of the girls could have stumbled upon the other  
being taken captive. But who?"  
  
"I think, we'd better pay a visit to the Kuno camp," Nabiki  
suggested. "All of us." Her tone said 'I don't trust you but I  
keep my enemies close'.  
  
---  
  
"Maximise, you moron!" Ranma yelled at the struggling rhino. "I  
ain't coming in to save you like that."  
  
The rhino suddenly stopped struggling, transformed into cyborg  
mode, then Mu Tzu launched a lariat towards the bank. Of course,  
the noose had been aimed at Ranma's head, but that could have  
been a (yeah right) coincidence.  
  
With the rope securely tied around a tree, instead, Mu Tzu reeled  
his heavy form onto the bank; making landfall beside the trench  
ploughed by the crash of his rhino form.  
  
Without the robes to obscure the view, Ranma took a good look at  
his opponents armoured body. He had been bulked up considerably,  
though not quite enough to account for his beast mode's mass. Just  
as Nabiki seemed to reduce when she transformed to her cat form, Mu  
Tzu must somehow gain bulk. Something about it nagged at Ranma but  
escaped his mind for the moment.  
  
"So, what happened to our man-to-man fight?" Ranma demanded.  
  
"Don't be a fool, Saotome," Mu Tzu sneered as he clambered to his  
feet. "We both use any advantage we can get. You're not one to  
hold back from using your opponent's weaknesses against them. Now  
I hold the advantage!"  
  
"So just where did you get this 'advantage'?" Ranma demanded  
contemptuously.  
  
"Do you think I'd tell you?" Mu Tzu sneered.  
  
"Don't be as big a moron as Kuno," Ranma urged. "If Cologne's  
heard of the Musk, surely you have too."  
  
"The old bat's here?" Mu Tzu paled, then recovered as he remembered  
his new powerful body. The image of Ke Lon trampled into the  
ground entertained him briefly.  
  
"Pay attention," Ranma urged, "do you think that the Musk will let  
you keep their secret and live?"  
  
Mu Tzu paused to consider. Had his pursuit of Shan Pu blinded him  
to the consequences of the deal? Had his eagerness to destroy the  
obstacle to his happiness doomed it? Could he have made a mistake?  
  
It all came down to 'was Ranma right?' and, in that case, there  
could be only one answer.  
  
---  
  
The tarantula stalked the forest floor.  
  
Hikaru rather liked the form. He'd always been considered somewhat  
creepily Gothic, when noticed at all, and liked the image somewhat;  
this was only more of the same. Now people could not ignore him.   
He was sure to be unforgettable.  
  
Besides, his new body was an improvement over the old model; in both  
cyborg and beast modes. If a tarantula wasn't as strong, weight for  
weight, as other spiders, it was still stronger than Gosunguki  
Hikaru had been and there were other bonuses to being a hunting  
spider.  
  
Especially when hunting.  
  
Yet, when he noticed which way his prey was fleeing, Hikaru came to  
a halt. He was very pleased with his new body, but he didn't let  
the power go to his head. He maximised and rushed back the way  
he'd come as fast as his legs could carry him. He knew when he  
would need help.  
  
(Most of the time.)  
  
---  
  
"What? The fair and beauteous Akane has been kidnapped?" Tatewaki  
repeated on learning the news. "What fiend would so dare?"  
  
"Oh hO Ho hO!" Kodachi cheered. "With those dreadful girls out of  
the way, nothing will stand between Darling Ranma and me!"  
  
"Excuse me?" Nabiki bristled.  
  
Tatewaki demanded thoughtfully, "perchance, Sister Dearest, did you  
have anything to do with this villainous act?"  
  
Indignantly, Kodachi protested, "dear Brother, how could you think  
that I would do away with those horrid girls then hide the  
evidence?"  
  
Tatewaki apologised contritely, "forgive me, my Twisted Sister. Of  
course you would flaunt your misdeeds to the world. You are quite  
openly devious."  
  
"That aside," Ke Lon considered, "I take it that you really have no  
idea what happened to the girls? Then in all likelihood, Mu Tzu  
has taken them hostage after the fact."  
  
Tatewaki thrust his sword and shield into the air and proclaimed,  
"that villain will taste the wrath of the mighty ..."  
  
"...purple dinosaur?" Nabiki slipped in.  
  
Tatewaki considered the name seriously for a moment before  
responding, "I think not, my love."  
  
---  
  
"Cut it out, Mousse!" Ranma growled as he weaved through Mu Tzu's  
punches. "This is getting tiresome."  
  
"Curse you, Saotome. Why can't I hit you?"  
  
"Grow a brain, Mousse," Ranma laughed. "You may be stronger now,  
but I'm still faster. All the power of that bulked up body doesn't  
do you any good against my speed. Without your hidden weapons, you  
don't stand a chance!"  
  
Mu Tzu growled ferally and roared, "my weapons are part of my  
body!" With a snap of his wrists, he unlimbered a pair of mallet  
shaped weapon launchers from ...somewhere... behind his back.   
"Now more than ever!"  
  
Ranma found himself suddenly on the defensive as Mu Tzu revealed  
that he still retained his hidden weapons; both missiles and  
grapples somehow stored in the barrels of those twin launchers.   
Caught by surprise, Ranma's only salvation was that Mu Tzu hadn't  
had time to fully practice with his new delivery system and was,  
basically, just firing his weapons off at random. Yoyo bombs  
emerged with equal likelihood as curare-tipped shiriken or a salvo  
of poison-thorned roses.  
  
Strangely enough, this was indistinguishable from his old and  
well-practiced technique.  
  
"Who's laughing now, Saotome!" Mu Tzu laughed as he fired off a  
series of paper aeroplanes.  
  
'Paper cuts,' Ranma thought with a hiss, 'are the worst.'   
Especially when they sliced through die-cast metal as easily as  
flesh.  
  
---  
  
A breathless Hikaru emerged from the scrub into the clearing beside  
the top of the waterfall river and stood right on top of an  
undetonated home-made landmine; but not for very long.  
  
---  
  
"Oh dear, they're still fighting," Kasumi observed at the sound of  
the explosion.  
  
"That's good, isn't it?" the cat asked. "At least we know Ranma  
hasn't been ambushed."  
  
"But why are they still fighting?" the tiger demanded. "It's well  
after sunrise. Ranma should have finished it by now."  
  
"Indeed," the 'raptor considered, "even my fight with Saotome  
lasted but a fraction of the time. Can this Mousse be more  
formidable than I? Nay! I refuse to believe it."  
  
"The problem with Mu Tzu," Ke Lon laughed mirthlessly, "is not his  
trick and traps, it's that he just won't give up. It's his most  
annoying quality."  
  
"You have a lot in common with him, Kuno," the cat smirked.  
  
"Indeed?" the 'raptor asked in sincere puzzlement. "In what way?"  
  
"Well, for one thing, Dear Brother," the black widow reported from  
the branches, "it seems that you are both Beast Warriors."  
  
"Oh my!" Ke Lon exclaimed as they approached the river. That was  
certainly unexpected. "This is bad."  
  
"When did that happen?" Kasumi demanded. "He was unmistakably  
human the last time we saw him." A blush rose to her cheeks at the  
memory.  
  
---  
  
The beast modes of Lin Ma and Min Ta stood watch as a third member  
of their party fussed with the sarcophagus. The device was ancient  
and battered, but still functioned. Usually. Mostly.  
  
The device reported, "converrsion of pproteann fforrm compp...."  
  
The Musk operator slammed the device with a fist and cursed.  
  
This was the critical moment where it would be revealed whether  
a new Beast Warrior would emerge or if the result was nonviable.   
So far the signs were not encouraging.  
  
The lid of the sarcophagus burst open and a metallised, female  
form made a brief appearance before transforming. The beast bolted  
for the entrance to the cave.  
  
The winged wolf dashed after it. On two legs, four legs or in the  
air, Lin Ma prided himself on being the fastest alive. Comments  
made by Saotome's enemies about his speed had pricked his  
competitive urges. He looked forward to putting Saotome's reputed  
speed to the test and putting him in his place. But at that  
moment, catching the newly reformatted beast would suffice.  
  
Jaws clamped around the fleeing prey's throat and almost instantly  
released it.  
  
Hands reached down and intercepted the disoriented beast. "Well  
now," the captor observed, ignoring the flaming battle aura,  
"that's an interesting development, my pet. Quite unexpected, I  
assure you, but useful, yes? Yes! Now, stop it. Calm down.   
Muskimise."  
  
Obediently, the blaze died down and the beast expanded into a  
female cyborg; with blankly staring eyes.  
  
"Excellent. The conditioning process holds. Prepare the next  
one .... Lin Ma!"  
  
"Not again?" the wolf whined as it turned to see a pile of snapped  
chains.  
  
---end part 10--- 


	11. A Scent of Musk in the Air (new)

|\v/| Primal Chaos  
|=_=| [rn][xo:fus][bw] A Ranma 1/2 / Beast Wars crossover fusion  
'\_/' Part 11: A Scent of Musk in the Air.  
  
I own Ranma 1/2; well, at least the volumes published by Viz  
Communications to date. Please buy the manga and encourage the  
author, Takahasi Rumiko, to produce more.  
  
Mainframe Entertainment produced the Beast Wars computer generated  
image animation.  
  
This work of fanfiction is basically a Ranma 1/2 alternate universe  
with some elements drawn from Beast Wars. It is produced purely  
for the entertainment of the author and like minded individuals on  
the Internet.  
  
---begin part 11---  
  
Hikaru shook his head in an attempt to clear the ringing in his  
ears then staggered forward. The explosion underfoot had left him  
disorientated and confused, which was why he didn't notice the  
river until he splashed into it. Then he tripped over a submerged  
boulder and into the rapid current. The current then carried him  
tumbling over the boulder-filled river-bed and towards the  
waterfall.  
  
Some mornings it really doesn't pay to get up at all.  
  
---  
  
"Oh no!" Kasumi exclaimed as she watched Ranma battle the  
reformatted Mu Tzu. The enlarged, and enraged, master of hidden  
weapons techniques seemed to have her fiance on the defensive.  
  
"Ranma!" the cat gasped as she watched her fiance dodge some wicked  
hardware.  
  
'This could be bad!' Ke Lon thought darkly. If the boy had become  
strong enough to defeat her future 'son-in-law', his bumbling  
pursuit of Shan Pu could become more than a mere annoyance and  
slapstick comedy.  
  
Genma watched the battle with surprising calm. Soun and Tatewaki  
searched the area for any sign of Akane. Tatewaki also enjoyed the  
sight of Ranma receiving a resounding defeat, marred only by the  
fact that he wasn't the one dishing it out.  
  
"Oh ho ho hO!" Kodachi cheered, lost in her own private fantasies.   
"Destroy the wicked knave for me, Sir Ranma, and you shall receive  
a kiss from me as reward."  
  
"He's not fighting for you, you know," the cat hissed in annoyance,  
then returned to watching the fight in dread.  
  
---  
  
"I have you now, Saotome!" Mu Tzu roared as his barrel weapons  
spat out sharp-edged blades on chains then drew them back again to  
refire almost as fast as Ranma could dodge. He charged forward  
with triumphant glee.  
  
Backflips, cartwheels and sidesteps carried Ranma just out of Mu  
Tzu's chain weapons' reach. With a flick of his wrists, Mu Tzu  
switched to rapid-firing playing cards which shredded bark as Ranma  
ran up a tree. Another flick of his wrists peppered the canopy  
with poison-tipped pub-darts.  
  
"Tell me something," Ranma asked as he dropped onto Mu Tzu's  
shoulders, "how many weapons do you have in those things, anyway?"  
  
Not quite stupid enough to fire his weapons at Ranma while he was  
standing on his own shoulders, Mu Tzu swung his arms in an attempt  
to dislodge his opponent, and discovered a disadvantage to being  
musclebound. Ranma braced one of those massive heavily-armoured  
weapon-holding arms and pushed down, at the same time locking his  
feet about Mu Tzu's neck for added leverage. Ranma then repeatedly  
introduced Mu Tzu's head and fist to each other.  
  
"Beast Mode!" Mu Tzu roared furiously. His head pulled down into  
his chest and Ranma hastily leapt away as the two halves which  
formed the beast's head snapped into place. Mu Tzu's freed arm  
folded into a leg; the weapon vanished into where ever it was  
stored.  
  
"Beast Mode!" Ranma echoed as he tumbled in the air then touched  
down with all four legs running. The enraged rhino charged blindly  
through the golden rocket's dust trail.  
  
"You can't escape this time!" the rhino bellowed as its hooves shook  
the earth behind its prey. "There is no cliff for me to run off  
now!"  
  
The cheetah suddenly made a sharp right turn and the rhino didn't;  
though he tried to break his charge.  
  
"Maybe not 'off'," the cheetah sighed as he screeched to a sitting  
stop, placed a paw over his muzzle, then peered over it and winced,  
"but 'into' is another matter. Charges like a bull; steers like a  
cow."  
  
---  
  
"What is that?" Soun demanded while pointing to the dark shape  
falling down the waterfall.  
  
Eyes were torn off of the battle long enough to see Hikaru's dark  
armor splash into the white water churning beneath the falls.  
  
"Forsooth!" Tatewaki exclaimed. "It would seem to be Gosunguki!   
Sister, if you would, fish him out of the river."  
  
"Who?" the cat asked while Kodachi considered the matter.  
  
"Oh, very well," Kodachi finally sighed as she deigned to rescue  
the drowning Goth boy with a line of silk. A snap of her wrist  
pulled Hikaru out of the water and hurled him into Tatewaki. "Oh!   
Ho ho ho! There you are, Dear Brother."  
  
"Oh look!" Kasumi announced joyously and clapped her hands  
together. "Ranma won!"  
  
"That has got to hurt," Nabiki observed dryly as they all rushed  
towards the scene. All, that is, except for the entangled Tatewaki  
and Hikaru.  
  
---  
  
The rhino pulled himself out from under the rubble, staggered a  
bit before maximising and stumbling to his knees. He muttered,  
"Die Saotome!" then fell on his face.  
  
"Man, you don't know when to quit," Ranma observed with some actual  
admiration before dumping a boulder onto his opponent. He dusted  
himself off and walked towards the approaching audience.  
  
Behind him, Mu Tzu rose to his feet; hefting the boulder over his  
head like a barbell. "Isth not over yesh, Saoto...!" he roared as  
his body locked into position. The boulder slipped from his  
fingers and bounced off of him as he slammed into the ground.  
  
"What the ...?" Ranma exclaimed. 'He really doesn't know when to  
quit.'  
  
"He's passed out," Ke Lon explained. "It seems that you have won,  
son in law."  
  
"Oh, congratulations, Ranma," Kasumi cheered.  
  
"And now," Kodachi announced as she melted against him, "for your  
reward, my Darling Knight."  
  
"What do you mm...?" Ranma demanded.  
  
"That's quite enough of that," the cat insisted possessively as she  
leaped up and pulled on Kodachi's braid with her teeth.  
  
"You vile little beast!" Kodachi hissed as she turned on the cat.   
"How dare you try to come between me and my Ranma Darling? It is  
unforgivable!"  
  
"Oh dear, Ranma, you're not hurt are you?" Kasumi demanded as she  
fussed over the dazed martial artist while her feline sister was  
chased by Kodachi with a mallet.  
  
"Shan Pu!" Mu Tzu erupted with glee as he pounced and hugged the  
girl. "How I've missed you. Say you will go out with me!"  
  
"Let my sister go, you jerk!" the cat hissed as she jumped onto Mu  
Tzu's broadened shoulders, swiped his cheek with a claw and slapped  
the glasses over his eyes. "You're hurting her!"  
  
"You're not Shan Pu," Mu Tzu exclaimed as he released the girl.  
  
Kasumi slid to her knees and began to cough up blood.  
  
---  
  
Mu Tzu stared at his hands in shock. It had seemed so simple: Shan  
Pu lo... lu... was forced to marry Saotome because he was a beast  
warrior so if Mu Tzu became one too then she would be free to leap  
into his arms and he would ... crush her to death!?  
  
Tendo Soun saw red. His precious Kasumi lay on the forest floor  
like a broken doll. His gentle daughter who wouldn't harm a soul,  
so much like her mother, had been callously attacked while he stood  
by uselessly.  
  
Soun snapped. "You B@$7@4D!"  
  
While the others stood by in shock, Soun erupted into motion. Long  
unpractised skills suddenly came back to him and were unleashed  
upon Mu Tzu's armoured form. A hurricane of jabs, kicks, punches  
and chops rained upon the Chinese boy; driving him backwards and  
denting his armor while Mu Tzu desperately tried to defend himself.  
  
---  
  
"Ranma!" the cat wailed as she nuzzled her sister's cheek. "Do  
something!"  
  
"There's nothing we can do, child," Ke Lon soothed the cat  
compassionately. "I wish there was." Which was true enough;  
obstacle to the Law or not, the polite girl had shared tea.  
  
Ranma stood stock still as the need triggered whatever it was  
inside him that had saved Nabiki the last time. He felt the  
system come online and he responded to its imperative. The world  
seemed to slow and he checked the area out and his instinctive  
search found ... nothing.  
  
The battle had sent small birds and animals fleeing or into hiding.   
The river was too churned to find fish and there were even no  
insects close enough for him to use. There was nothing; not even a  
squirrel nor a mouse. He widened his search and found ...there...  
a speck in the sky that his straining eyes made out to be a falcon  
circling high above.  
  
Streams of data seemed to flow into him from the bird but suddenly  
stop. It felt somehow wrong; as though the bird was too far off,  
or something, to get a sufficient reading. He turned his attention  
desperately back to the surrounding mountainside. There had to be  
something, somewhere ....  
  
There; just the bones of a large animal, but it seemed that enough  
data streamed from them for the process to begin. His chest unit  
swung clear as he moved over Kasumi's bone-shattered body.  
  
---  
  
The cat felt like sicking up as she watched the wires thread  
throughout Kasumi's body. All she remembered from her own  
reformatting was the bright light. She didn't recall fine wires  
spooling from inside Ranma, or the way they spread through the skin  
and burrowed into the ground; seemingly to leach metal from the  
soil and rock and use it to replace flesh and bone. Kasumi was  
literally being rebuilt before their eyes.  
  
The process seemed inexorably slow and Ranma showed signs of  
straining; as though whatever he was doing was taxing his system to  
the limits. His hands seemed to be reaching and clawing as though  
he were trying to pull at something that eluded his grasp.  
  
Nabiki hadn't considered where the metal for her own body had come  
from, and she still didn't want to think about it. Kasumi, at  
least, was receiving fresh metal directly from ores within the  
mountain. The cat just hoped the thing inside Ranma could extract  
enough.  
  
Then the glowing wires broke off and retracted into his chest which  
snapped closed. Ranma dropped onto his knees and gasped for  
breath. His body seemed to somehow collapse in on itself slightly  
as the glow about him faded.  
  
Kasumi's reformed body lay unmoving on the ground. Only the wisps  
of her brown hair fluttered in the morning breeze. There was no  
sign of a vital spark animating her reformed shell.  
  
Then her eyes twitched open, her body convulsed and she transformed  
with a startled cry of, "whiney!"  
  
---  
  
The Musk sped away in deep thought after witnessing at first hand  
that the old legends were true. Somehow Saotome had received the  
Musk' creation matrix; an artefact stored within the citadel and,  
supposedly, endowed only into a worthy leader by the Musk'  
ancestral spirits every few generations. How Saotome had tricked  
those spirits into accepting him was not the problem; it was how Ha  
Bu would react to the news.  
  
If Ha Bu had reacted badly to failing to meet whatever criteria the  
spirits applied, learning that a Pred had been found to be primal  
material instead was bound to drive him over the edge.  
  
Telling him would be such a delight; if he didn't kill the  
messenger.  
  
---  
  
"Oh my!" Soun exclaimed as he watched his daughter grow accustomed  
to her four long legs. "Kasumi, is that really you?"  
  
She reared onto her hind legs as he approached and whinnied. Her  
hooves boxed warningly and her wings fanned the air violently until  
he backed away.  
  
"What's wrong with my little girl?" Soun demanded. "Ranma, what  
have done to her?"  
  
"Nee!" Kasumi snorted as she leapt between them and pawed the  
ground angrily. Her mind was clouded and confused, but no one  
threatened her Ranma. She stood over him like a nervous mare  
protecting her foal and stamped her hooves warningly when anyone  
tried to approach.  
  
"Easy, Kasumi," Ranma soothed as he stroked her muzzle. She  
nuzzled him affectionately. Her golden wings folded onto her brown  
back as she calmed down slightly.  
  
"Nabiki was like this at first too, remember, Soun," Genma  
comforted his old friend, "so was Ranma, though that .... Anyway,  
I'm sure she'll snap out of it soon enough. She just has to get  
over the shock. In the meantime, look at how close they're  
getting."  
  
"Hey!" Nabiki hissed at Genma, though his words had brought a smile  
back to her father's face. What was she; yesterday's choice?  
  
"Nothing like that happened to us," Kodachi reported smugly;  
though she eyed the attention Ranma was showing Kasumi's beast form  
jealously. Kodachi's beast mode was many things, even beautiful in  
its own sinister way, but being pettable was just not one of its  
qualities.  
  
Nabiki was of mixed emotions. Relief that her sister would live  
warred with resentment. She had felt that being a beast warrior  
too had given her an advantage over her sisters in the fiancee  
race. Now she wasn't unique. In fact, Kasumi had a definite edge  
with her unique form. "Ranma, why does she have wings?"  
  
"I ...," Ranma started to explain. "I dunno. Crossed wires, mixed  
signals or somethin'. I'm just glad it worked at all."  
  
Ke Lon was deep in thought over the possibilities. She'd seen how  
Mu Tzu had improved after becoming a beast warrior and the ability  
Ranma just displayed only made him more desirable as a groom for  
Shan Pu. "Now that she's safe, where is Shan Pu?" Ke Lon wondered  
then added as an after thought, "and that Tendo girl?"  
  
Mu Tzu still lay cowering in terror from the reign of fury Soun had  
unleashed upon him. "Wait," he registered the vital fact and  
recovered somewhat. "Shan Pu is missing?"  
  
Hikaru moaned on top of Tatewaki; both having been forgotten in the  
excitement of Ranma's win and the subsequent near tragedy.  
  
---  
  
"I have no idea where Shan Pu is," Mu Tzu asserted, "but Gosunguki  
was guarding Saotome's woman. If Shan Pu is harmed because of you  
Sao...." Mu Tzu flinched guiltily as he turned to threaten Ranma  
and noticed Kasumi's beast form nuzzling his enemy.  
  
"You've done enough already," Nabiki told him coldly then turned to  
ask, "now, what happened to my sister, Gosunguki?"  
  
"She escaped," a battered Hikaru informed them and withered under  
Tatewaki's gaze. "I tried to track her down, er, so she wouldn't  
be hurt wandering in the forest alone, but she was headed for the  
Musk' camp. I came back to get help."  
  
"Surely the noble Musk would not harm an innocent maiden," Tatewaki  
assured them.  
  
"I wouldn't be so sure, Kuno Sempai," Hikaru corrected politely.   
"When I took Mousse to them yesterday, I over heard them talking  
about some plan they had of using 'the Tendo woman' against him."  
  
"It's possible that these Musk have taken Shan Pu as well," Ke Lon  
said with a frown. "Perhaps for a similar reason."  
  
"Something isn't adding up here," Nabiki muttered as she rubbed her  
head. It had been a confusing morning.  
  
"We must rescue my Shan Pu at once!" Mu Tzu decreed to the heavens.  
  
"Sit down," Ke Lon rapped him over the head with her staff. "You  
are in no position to give orders, idiot."  
  
"Actually, I agree with the idiot," Ranma declared. "After all,  
they've been testing me by throwing these idiots at me, so its time  
I see what these Musk are made of."  
  
Tatewaki and Mu Tzu bristled but Hikaru merely nodded and Kodachi  
was too busy trying to avoid Kasumi's teeth and still look dignified  
to notice the insult.  
  
"I wouldn't be so eager if I were you," Genma cautioned. "You  
still don't remember much after we were reforged, do you? There  
was one Musk who had a terrible power. We barely escaped from his  
wrath. If he, or one like him, is here, we won't stand a chance  
now that you have the neko-ken under control."  
  
"So, son-in-law knows that technique," Ke Lon cackled. "I haven't  
seen the neko-ken in over fifty years. With your beast form you  
must be formidable, but I am surprised that you are able to use  
your beast form at all."  
  
Nabiki frowned. "That doesn't make sense, old woman."  
  
"Training for the neko-ken is very rigorous," the elder Joketsu  
informed her seriously. "You must wrap the student in fish sausage  
then throw them into a pit of starving cats. After repeating the  
process long enough the student eventually becomes a berserker at  
the mere sight of a cat; fighting with the same savagery as the  
beasts."  
  
"Indeed, what rigorous training," Soun said with tears of  
admiration. Why it reminded him of the tor-, er, training he'd  
been put through. Those were the days.  
  
"What kind of training is that!?" Nabiki exclaimed and eyed her  
fiance warily. He certainly didn't seem to go crazy around her  
but it was no wonder he didn't want to teach it to her. "Only a  
total idiot would teach that technique!"  
  
"To be a great martial artist you must make great sacrifices," Ke  
Lon preached sagely. Genma and Soun nodded in agreement with her  
wisdom.  
  
"Unfortunately," Genma cried remorsefully, "becoming a beast  
warrior has robbed Ranma of the power of the neko-ken. For some  
reason, after he recovered, he was no longer afraid of cats. It is  
such a tragedy! Without the neko-ken, Ranma is just not ready to  
face that Musk Warrior. If he is here ...."  
  
"... then they would not be holding back," Nabiki theorised  
thoughtfully. "Tell us, Gosunguki, exactly what are we facing?   
How many Musk, and what are their beast modes?"  
  
"There are four, that I know of," Hikaru said eagerly. He was  
pleased to be the centre of attention. "Two of them are like Miss  
Kasumi; a mix of animal and bird. The small one becomes a wolf  
with an eagle's wings, the large one becomes a tiger fused with a  
hawk. Then there is the boy in red armor and the woman. She  
didn't seem to be a beast warrior under her kimono, but Mousse  
proved that it is possible to conceal the armor."  
  
"The Musk were not reputed to have women beast warriors," Ke Lon  
observed. "Though they often took strong women warriors to wife,  
only their boy children were made into beast warriors. However,  
that may have changed." It certainly would, if Ke Lon's plans bore  
fruit.  
  
"Go on," Ranma urged Hikaru.  
  
"Er, that's all I know," Hikaru sighed.  
  
"You only know the beast modes of two of the four," Nabiki  
summarised, "one of whom may, or may not, actually be a beast  
warrior, and there could be more of them. Oh, thanks, that helps  
heaps."  
  
"It's better than nothing," Ranma observed philosophically as he  
stroked Kasumi's mane and scratched behind her ears.  
  
Nabiki told herself that she was not jealous; repeatedly.  
  
"In any event," Ke Lon advised, "those three or four are likely to  
know how to use their beast forms much better than any of you.   
They were reputed to study an art called the Shokai Ken, which  
uses the movements of animals. As either warriors or beasts they  
were said to be formidable."  
  
---  
  
"I knew I should have made that right turn at Okinawa," the rat  
said as it erupted from the ground and looked over the map at the -  
"Oh crap!" - women's baths.  
  
Dodging buckets and soap, he knew that his luck was holding up as  
well as ever. Things just couldn't get any worse.  
  
"Charlotte!? You came back to widdle Azusa!"  
  
---end part 11--- 


End file.
